HOPES and FEARS
by One-WayRoad
Summary: Louise de la Vallière has stumbled her way through summoning one commoner - only to somehow summon another one! A spiky-haired boy appears with a severed right hand and a mysterious power, with flaming Magicians and shocking Espers following hot on his heels, and a fierce Magic God on the warpath. Will Halkeginia have the answers? There's only one way to find out!
1. Chapter 1

HOPES and FEARS

This story is a piece of Fanfiction, drawing from A Certain Magical Index and Familiar of Zero.

This story contains spoilers for the Novels up to, and including, New Testament. We start at the end of the Baggage City arc (New Testament Volume 4) for _A Certain Magical Index_ and at the beginning of the first novel (Zero's Familiar) for _The Familiar of Zero_.

Chapter 1: The Emergence of Two Heroes. _Disappearing_Right_Hand_

**Part 1**

A certain spiky-haired boy lay bleeding and unconscious on the floor of an arena in what had once been the base of the proud Anti-Academy City Science Guardians. His right hand - the source of all his misfortune, the power that destroyed illusions, and the weapon that propelled him to such great heights - lay a few feet away, severed roughly from its wrist.

Othinus. The one-eyed Magic God who had done this cruel thing to him. She stood a short distance away, eyeing her enemy.

A failure named Ollerus. The man who had almost become a Magic God in his own right.

"Hurry up and leave with the Dvergr. I have business with that Imagine Breaker."

Othinus stared at him contemptuously - and started her attack. At the same time, Ollerus counterattacked.

The one witness to this scene, Kumokawa Maria, a Level 2 Esper from Academy City, had no idea what had happened - except that two great powers had clashed, and they had more or less been equal. The young blond man named Ollerus was well-matched with One-Eyed Othinus. Meanwhile, Imagine Breaker continued to bleed out on the floor.

"Give it up. This will settle nothing," said Ollerus.

"_Do you think a mere failure can stand before a pure Magic God?_" Othinus snapped.

Maria was feeling dizzy. It was bad enough seeing Kamijou Touma lose his hand, and now, just trying to keep up with the two monsters before her was taking its toll on her mind. She shook her head and tried to focus.

_Kamijou Touma...Oh crap, I'd better do something about that hand! But what…? I can't possibly do surgery here! Better stop the bleeding first though, at least!_

The girl dressed in a showy black and yellow maid outfit hurried forward, getting as close as she dared, starting to produce a clean cloth to wrap around Kamijou's wound. Ollerus and Othinus continued to trade invisible blows nearby, paying her no heed.

But something odd happened before Maria could get near enough to do anything.

_Kamijou's body started rising._

There was a strange object just behind him, floating in the air. It looked exactly like a floating mirror. Ollerus and Othinus frowned, but both were too busy concentrating on the other. Kamijou continued to rise, like a wooden puppet being manipulated by a lousy puppeteer. He slowly floated towards the mirror.

What _was_ that? Maria gasped. "_No_!"

She ran with all her might to Kamijou, and grabbed his body. She knew next to nothing about magic, but her instinct told her that this was something dangerous. Or, more likely, all the events of the past few hours had put her on her guard. Even benign-looking objects could tip the scales of the battle and lead to tragic outcomes.

She pulled with all her might, and then some. But Kamijou's body just kept floating towards the mirror. Now, Ollerus and Othinus had completely stopped, and both were watching on. Othinus looked somewhat interested, and Ollerus looked wary. Both were unwilling to move just yet, still keeping an eye on their enemy, but both were also preparing to kick off and attack or defend.

As if sensing this tension in the air, the force pulling on Kamijou's body intensified, and pulled him even faster towards the mirror. Maria screamed and made one last desperate pull on his legs.

But it was too late. Kamijou's body was lost. It was lost to whatever lay inside of the silver mirror.

A great power rose in response. Imagine Breaker. The right hand that had served as a vessel for the Fantasy Killer came undone. Every blood vessel, every nerve and every strand of muscle was taken apart as the invisible power of Kamijou Touma's right hand was released from its restraints and chased after its master. As Kumokawa Maria reached for the Mirror, trying to salvage what she could, Imagine Breaker flew past her, temporarily rendering her unable to use her psychic powers as it brushed her face, and flew straight at the mirror portal.

The portal shattered just like a regular mirror would when a fist was thrown at it. Maria stumbled through shiny, ephemeral fragments of a phenomenon unknown to her.

* * *

**Part 2**

Tristain Academy of Magic.

An Academy meant for the powerful and wealthy nobles of the magical continent of Halkeginia. It was located in the Kingdom of Tristain, and attended mainly by mages of the same country; although noble children from other countries were allowed admission as well. Reflecting the pride and prestige of the great school, the complex was Pentagon-shaped, with each vertex signifying one of the great Elements of Magic: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, and the legendary Void,

Compared to the tense atmosphere of the arena in dark, cold Baggage City, lost to the ravages of the Kiharas and the darkness of Academy City, the mood was much lighter in the Academy's Vestri Court, if a little mean-spirited.

Mean-spirited? Well, of course. There was that one girl who was getting jeered at at this moment.

Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Louise the Zero. A teenaged girl with a petite figure and striking pink hair. She was dressed in the Academy's uniform, which comprised a white blouse, grey pleated skirt and a black cloak.

It was supposed to be a glorious day for her (she had hoped). The day when she would make a contract with her one and only magical partner - a familiar that would serve and accompany her for life. And, like in every other matter pertaining to magic, she had utterly failed.

Where others had summoned great and mighty magical beasts like dragons and salamanders, all she had managed was...a single lowly commoner.

He was not particularly good-looking either, with plain features, dull black hair, a slight tan, and a stupid expression.

But _he_ was the one who had appeared when she had cast the "Summon Servant" Spell. This one boy who could not even speak the same tongue as her until a translate spell had been cast on him. Really, which backwater was he even from?!

"Well then, continue with the ceremony." urged her teacher, Mr Colbert, a bald middle-aged man carrying a staff and dressed in black robes.

"With him?" she whined.

"Yes, with him. Hurry. The next class will begin any minute. How much more time is this summoning going to take? After mistake upon mistake, you have finally managed to summon him. Hurry and form a contract." Mr Colbert's words were harsh; the words of a frustrated teacher. Louise bit her lip unhappily and faced the commoner boy with an air of 'let's just get this over with'.

"You should count yourself lucky. Normally, you'd go your whole life without a noble doing this to you."

The common boy she had summoned was a Japanese teen named Hiraga Saito. He had been in confusion ever since he was brought to this world - by a strange mirror-like object that had just appeared in front of him in Akihabara and swallowed him whole while he was out getting his laptop fixed

He had no way of knowing that a very similar mirror-like object had appeared halfway across the world in a wintry city in Eastern Europe where it had absorbed a certain denizen of Japan's Academy City along with his strange power to negate all magical and psychic phenomena.

Where was he? Who were these people? What was this pink girl trying to do to him?!

He realised the answer to the last question, at least, in a second. She was kissing him.

It lasted barely a few seconds, after which she removed her soft lips from his, and said with an air of finality, "It is done."

"What's done? What did you just d-do to me?" Hiraga Saito sputtered, overcoming the shock of having his first kiss stolen in such a random fashion.

The pink girl glared at him in a high-handed manner. Saito glared back and was just about to press for more answers - but he doubled over in pain instead.

His entire body was burning up, almost like a really bad fever. It felt really bad on the back of his left hand. He raised it painfully and looked at it - there were some strange squiggles on it. The bald man in the robes walked over to him and looked at the squiggles.

"Hmmm...These are very unusual Runes," he said, then frowned.

"Wh-what?" Saito demanded, feeling better now that the pain had gone, but the teacher's attention was elsewhere. Saito followed his gaze, turning his head back to look behind him. There, a few metres back was…

A shiny silver mirror floating in the air.

Saito blanched. That! That was the symbol of his misfortune. It was the blasted object that had appeared in the middle of Tokyo and transported him to this strange place with weirdos in robes and a pink girl with a cute face and a bad attitude. The mirror shimmered and ripples formed in it, like the mirror was made of liquid.

And then something came out of it.

It was a human being. A boy with spiky black hair, dressed in what appeared to be a black school uniform with an orange T-shirt inside and a scarf around his neck. He fell out of the mirror, as if he had no control over his own body, and hit the ground hard, landing with his face down. His right hand was missing. The students gasped and some screamed.

"_AIEEEeeeeeeeeeee!_"

"Oh Great Founder, I think I'm going to faint..."

"Guiche-sama, do something about that man!"

"A-Ahaha I would, but...such a being is below my attention!"

"_Calm down_! This is a world-class Academy, and we are prepared to face anything, even severe injuries!" Mr Colbert bellowed, as he approached the handless boy.

"What's with Louise? She just keeps summoning commoners today!"

"Louise the Zero! If you are going to keep summoning odd creatures, could you at least refrain from doing them harm? Even if they're commoners, it is in poor taste to hurt them like this!" a girl with blond locks complained.

"Or at least summon a handsome nobleman!" Urged another girl, a fiery-haired, dark-skinned beauty with a seductive smile, not even worried about the situation.

"N-no! I did nothing! I have no idea where this..._thing_ came from! Eeek!" Louise shrieked and turned away in fright as her blue-haired classmate Tabitha pointedly stared at the commoner boy's bleeding wrist.

But Saito did not care about any of that. The mirror was in front of him. His ticket back home. It didn't occur to him that it may no longer be working. He wouldn't know until he tried. He struggled to his feet and stumbled towards the mirror. Picking up speed, he practically threw himself at it.

But then, it shattered, giving way just as he was about to fall through it. He landed painfully on his front. As he fell, he thought he felt an unnatural wind brush his cheek - almost as if it had come straight out of the mirror, breaking it in the process. The wind rushed towards the other boy. As all this happened, everyone suddenly froze. Their eyes were fixed on the boy lying face down on the ground. The students who had so arrogantly boasted of their familiars and jeered at Louise just moments before were now silent and quaking in their fine clothes. A fair few had even stumbled to the ground, unable to hold their footing. Even the teacher, Mr Colbert, seemed scared of _something_. Saito rubbed his cheek and stared intensely at the injured newcomer, not understanding what the fuss was all about.

He was not perceptive enough to feel it, but there was something immensely powerful emanating from the spiky-haired boy's wrist. Had it not been crushed by Othinus, the Magic God, earlier? It surely had. And yet, it was back. The Mages could all feel it, and they all felt threatened by it.

"Keep...down." a small, weak voice said. "Stay out...of this."

It was the handless boy himself. The teacher let out an audible gasp upon hearing this. Suddenly, the invisible power that the boy had been letting out disappeared, as if it had been shattered. And indeed, there was a loud sound, just like that of a glass pane being shattered.

Almost as if in response, the "wind" that had rushed out of the mirror portal settled. The next few seconds were surreal, to say the least, for Saito. He witnessed what would most definitely be considered a medical impossibility in his homeland. The spiky-haired boy's hand grew back. The bones appeared out of thin air, followed by the flesh, blood vessels and nerves, and finally, the skin. Saito remembered that the people around him had mentioned magic before. He had dismissed it as a bad joke before, but faced with this sight that made him question his sanity, he was forced to reconsider his initial opinion.

When a tense minute had passed, there was a fresh hand at the boy's right wrist. The boy, still lying face-down on the ground, clenched his fist a few times - slowly, weakly, as though he was testing it.

"Just...what are you?" the bald teacher asked, with not an ounce of strength in his voice.

The boy had already fallen unconscious once again. The shock of losing his right hand, only to regain it minutes later, was just too much for that Level 0 boy.

"No way...Louise, did you just summon a noble?" The comments were a little shaky, but it seemed everyone's fear was quickly disappearing.

"Don't be ridiculous! How could that be a noble? Just look at the state of his body and clothes! A true noble would not be caught dead in such a state!"

"Plus, a noble would never be defeated in such a fashion - except to another noble. And we know that is impossible because a noble would never inflict such an injury on anyone. It is just...animalistic!"

"Maybe he's another Zero! Who knows, maybe he got defeated by his own spell, just like _somebody_ we all know?"

The sheltered noble students came up with their own theories on what had just happened, also taking the opportunity to insult their classmates. A fat boy with blond hair and a timid way of speaking said shakily, "But if he was not a noble, how could he have healed himself?"

Comments from this boy, Malicorne de Grandpré, would normally be met with snorts of derision and maybe some jeers, but this time, everyone was forced to think about what he had just said. Commoners could not use the magic of nobles. That was the unwritten rule Nobles and Commoners lived their lives by. Louise's mind raced.

"Mr Colbert...could there possibly be a mistake?"

"Whatever do you mean, Miss Vallière?"

"Maybe...just maybe, this man could be my familiar instead of that...thing?" she wrinkled her nose at Saito, who belatedly realised she was insulting him ("Hey! What am I, a pile of trash?!").

Mr Colbert regarded her sternly. "Miss Vallière, I have already explained to you the importance of summoning your own familiar, have I not?"

"Y-yes, Mr Colbert?"

"Do you remember what I told you about our Springtime Summoning Ritual?"

"T-that it is a sacred rite?"

"Exactly. Now that you have summoned a familiar and sealed the contract with him, how can you let yourself think of discarding him in favour of another? Reflect on your actions, Miss Vallière!"

"Yes, Mr Colbert." said Louise dejectedly. "But what are we to do with this gentleman?"

All the students stared at Kamijou Touma, then at Mr Colbert. The bald teacher sighed.

"I do not know what has happened here, but I do intend to find out. All of you, return to your classroom. I will bring this boy to our healing ward and find out more about him when he wakes up. Until then, I want everyone to focus on their lessons! There will be no meaningless speculation on what has happened here. Rest assured, we professors will explain everything to you when we have our answers!"

With that, the students, who had started noisily chattering to themselves, quietened themselves, and started edging away slowly, unwilling to part so quickly from the scene of such an unusual event without any answers. Louise curtly beckoned to her new familiar. "Hey, you! Come with me. We're leaving."

"Where? And you still haven't answered any of my questions!"

"Silence, commoner! How dare you address me so informally?!"

Ignoring the chatter, Colbert approached the body of Kamijou Touma and examined it carefully. The right hand had originally been missing, and a great suffocating power had leaked out of it - only to be sealed when a replacement hand suddenly appeared back on the boy's body. Mages being able to regrow their own body parts had been heard of, but the stories about their personalities were not too promising. Colbert pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind, however. Right now, there was a boy who had clearly undergone some kind of trauma recently; questions about his personality could be left till later, once he had been healed properly. Colbert stood up and took out his wand to cast a simple levitation spell.

Kamijou's left foot rose, followed by his left hand. Then, the right foot. Colbert frowned. It was true he did not specialize in wind magic, but since when was his levitation _this_ unstable? Just as the right hand was about to rise, there was a high-pitched sound, like glass shattering, and the boy's body fell.

_The spell had failed_.

The students, who had been preparing to move off, stopped and turned their necks to look. Suddenly very self-conscious, Colbert tried the levitation spell again - only to get the same results. The students fully turned around, some with bemused smiles. Trying to figure out what was wrong, Colbert smiled uncomfortably and tried casting "Levitation" on himself. He rose gracefully like a feather lifted by a breeze.

"Clearly the problem is not with my magic." he mused to himself. "But more importantly! We have no time for this! I will determine what is happening later. For now, we need to have him taken care of!" He looked around at the class. The short blue-haired girl looked up and whistled. A great blue dragon gently descended on them.

"Sylphid will help to carry that mysterious boy." she said quietly.

"That is very helpful of you, Miss Tabitha." said Colbert cheerfully. He picked up Kamijou and placed him on the dragon.

* * *

**Between The Lines 1**

A certain girl with brown hair, glasses and an ample chest sat in a cafe sipping coffee. She was wearing the winter uniform of Kirigaoka Girls Academy, and would have had the air of a wealthy _ojou-sama_ - if not for the slightly timid look on her face. Opposite her was a young girl in a white and golden nun's habit, wolfing down snacks like some mythical snack-eating monster. There was also a cat on the chair next to her, purring softly

"Mmmm this is simply divine! Thank you so much for treating me, Hyoukaaaa!" Cried the nun. The uniformed girl smiled gently.

"Oh, it's nothing...Did Kamijou-san go somewhere again?"

"Touma just left without saying a word! He just left me and Sphinx alone in his dorm. With no food!" The nun raged.

"We'll, I'm sure he has important things to do..."

"More important than coming back to play with me?" The nun whined. The Kirigaoka student looked sympathetic.

Kazakiri Hyouka. A mysterious being, indeed. She was not human, but rather, an aggregation of AIM Diffusion fields emitted by the hundreds of thousands of Espers in Academy City. She was an amorphous entity that was forced into a human-like shape thanks to the threatening presence of a certain boy's right hand.

She was an artificial angel created through science.

This was what Kazakiri Hyouka was. One would expect a being as powerful as her to be fearless - especially against something as insignificant as a Level 0. However, that right hand was something she feared on an instinctive level. Just as a person would reflexively pull her hand away from a hot surface, she would pull away from the existence known as Imagine Breaker. Of course for her, touching the Fantasy Killer wouldn't end with a simple burn.

But just a few hours ago, _something_ had changed. She felt it faintly, yet clearly.

It was as if a great weight had been lifted off her chest. She felt..._free._ Like a predator chasing her had just randomly decided to give up the chase. She felt _big_, like nothing could stop her.

She felt lonely, like she had just lost a _friend_.

"What's wrong, Hyouka?"

"Uh? O-oh, it just..." The timid girl sighed, "It just feels lonely without all of us here together,"

The two girls sighed again.

* * *

**Part 3**

Warning signs flashed repeatedly before the eyes of the "human" suspended in a tank of liquid inside what was probably the strongest building in the world, located in Academy City's District 7. Aleister Crowley mentally waved these away and started a specific program.

**Biometric confirmation complete. Validating connection.**

**Welcome back, Aleister-sama.**

**Reading Thoth 78 artificial intelligence is beginning the input task.**

**Starting discussion regarding Imagine Breaker.**

**Imagine Breaker is the name given to the ability to nullify other powers, be they of scientific or magical origin. It has taken many forms throughout the ages, and in it's current form, it resides within the right hand of Academy City Level 0 Kamijou Touma.**

**This level 0 is unable to create any observable phenomena using quantum theory based on his personal reality, and so far has not shown the ability to create phenomena using a different set of laws created and refined outside Academy City. There are many theories surrounding Imagine Breaker, and some would put him in the same category as divine powers, indeed.**

**However, out of these different theories, one that is of special interest has this to say about Imagine Breaker:**

"Hey, Aleister. mind if we talk?" A voice cut in. Aleister, the general superintendent of Academy City turned his head slightly, diverting his attention from the AI that was briefing him on Imagine Breaker. The voice had come in from the special channel used only by UNDER_LINE, a system of nanomachines that permeated the City of science and transmitted information to Aleister's headquarters. His computer had been tracking the man behind the voice since the second he entered the city, and when he picked up a simple radio used by Anti-Skill, UNDER_LINE had patched his voice over to Aleister's HQ and played the audio as soon as he said spoken. That was how "interesting" this man was.

"And what are you doing here?" Aleister asked smoothly. "_Failure_?"

"I wish we could have a face-to-face, but I guess that's not gonna happen, is it? Anyway..."

"Is it Gremlin?"

"Well, this is related to them. I have two things I wanna talk to you about. The first is about that Imagine Breaker boy."

The hospital gown-clad Superintendent remained silent and waited for the failed Magic God to continue.

"You probably already felt something was off about Imagine Breaker recently, but did you know he's gone?" Ollerus was blunt.

What?

"He disappeared from Baggage City after that whole Natural Selector fiasco. I'd say he might not be in this world anymore, but, hey, what do I know?"

Aleister had indeed been tracking Imagine Breaker. He knew something was wrong ever since 5h45m ago, but Imagine Breaker had disappeared? _From this world_? The prospect was ridiculous. Just as **Reading Thoth 78** had said, Imagine Breaker existed in several forms, and even if Kamijou Touma had died, the power to destroy illusions would have survived in some form or another. Granted, Imagine Breaker was a valuable chess piece to Aleister in its current form as Kamijou Touma's right hand. But it was not like other forms of the same power could not be used by Aleister.

"Oh come on, would I lie to you?" the voice said playfully. "I saw it happen myself. He was taken by a portal - to where, I don't know. Even if you don't believe me, one of your people saw it too. Some girl with black locks and a black and yellow maid costume. Heh~ I bet Silvia would rage if she saw that getup."

A picture of Kumokawa Maria appeared on a separate screen, called up by the computer after hearing Ollerus' description.

"You are saying the boy with the ability to negate even divine powers was sucked through a supernatural portal?" Aleister asked skeptically.

"Oh, his right hand had been cut off at that time. I suppose that's how it was possible. Imagine Breaker still works though. It also went into the portal, and destroyed it along the way. I guess you can think of it as a man running through a tunnel divided into many sections, with these sections collapsing only after the man has passed through them. As long as our man runs fast enough, he can make it to the exit of the tunnel before it completely collapses. In other words, Imagine Breaker destroyed the portal, but at the same time, somehow managed to get through."

"An unusual metaphor, but it serves."

"Hmph. Let's not waste any more time. I just came to tell you what I know 'cause I was hoping you guys would do something to bring that boy back. We may need his power in our fight against Gremlin."

"Is the man who stepped into the territory of a Magic God asking for help?" Aleister's voice had but the slightest trace of mocking in it.

"No. Well, not really. This brings me to the second thing I wanted to talk about. _We're not going to waste time on Imagine Breaker_."

He took a deep breath and continued, "You probably have heard of all the theories about Imagine Breaker - you wanna know what I believe though?" Ollerus did not wait for a response and said, "_Imagine Breaker is the collection of all Magicians' Hopes and Fears_. It is a reference point that gives us an accurate measure of the world untainted by severe magical distortions. Some Magicians consider it a source of hope, as it symbolizes a way to return the world to normal after it has undergone a distortion. In other words, we magicians can do whatever we want without the fear of major repercussions, since we have the reference point of Imagine Breaker. It's like ruining the computer you use for work, but not feeling bad about it because all your files are backed up in the cloud."

He paused for breath, then continued, "And at the same time, other magicians consider it one of their fears, as it removes the distortion they have purposefully wreaked on the world. It's like embarking on a massive architectural project to remake the urban layout of a city, only to have the city's superintendent back out at the last moment and order your layout scrapped in favour of the old city layout."

"..."

"Magic God Othinus is on the warpath. She wants to completely master her powers so she's no longer constrained by the 50% failure rate of her infinite possibilities. According to our intel, she wants to do this using Odin's legendary weapon, the Lance of Gungnir. This will remake the world, and she sees Imagine Breaker as an evil temptation that distracts Gremlin from their goal.

"So what will you do?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're gonna go crush Gremlin. We don't need Kamijou Touma but I can't deny I'd feel more at ease with him around. Think of it as insurance, if you like. Or perhaps..._hope_. One last trump card to derail Gremlin's efforts by destroying their spiritual items. _And if it comes to it_, he could be the reference point to bring the world back to what it used to be." _If he, or anyone else, was still alive at that point._

"I see."

"Good. Now, I'd say Norse Myths would be a good starting point for this search. Everyone's heard of the legend of the rainbow-"

He was cut off from that point onwards. Aleister Crowley was not a being to do as others bid him do. Nor was he so helpless he had to rely on the Failure to spoon-feed him information.

But having said that, the disappearance of Imagine Breaker did throw a wrench in his plans. He needed that boy back in this world. He started dictating a message to a certain old man who happened to be a member of the Board of Directors.

"Kaizumi Tsugutoshi. I have a job for you and that brain of yours"

And when he had finished that, he opened another channel to a certain backstabbing multi-spy with a fetish for sisters, and dictated more instructions.

Information had to be gathered, and people like Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Kumokawa Seria were the masters at these arts. Of course, Aleister could do it himself, but he had other things to do. After all, a good leader's worth is determined by how well he gets others to do various tasks that lead to a beautifully executed master plan, isn't it?

* * *

**Between The Lines 2**

Misaka Mikoto was a busy girl. The Ichihanaran festival was coming up and just about every student and teacher in Academy City, in other words, almost everybody in the city, was stretched to the limit playing their given roles. Students worked on decorating their schools and preparing items to make themselves stand out. Anti-skill officers and Judgment volunteers like a certain big-breasted, jersey-wearing woman (who had traded in her jersey for a proper uniform) and an air-headed girl with flowers on her hair were out patrolling the streets and balancing enforcing security with allowing the students to have the best possible cultural festival experience.

However, even in such a situation, Mikoto was not focusing on her work. Her thoughts kept drifting back to what had happened not too long ago. She had accompanied a certain misfortune-ridden boy to Hawaii and had shared with him the kind of adventure one normally only reads about in over-the-top light novels. She had long been waiting for him to say something to her. Something like "Lend me your strength". Or "Help me". Or even a simple phrase like "I'm scared".

Granted, it was not his idea to have her come along to Hawaii. The credit for that went to Leivinia Birdway, who even put them together initially for that operation (she blushed hard just thinking about it). But she had stood beside him and fought for him during that one time. A feeling of exhilaration had run through her body when she took on the Trident forces back then. Not because she enjoyed fighting and curb-stomping ordinary humans (or magicians or fellow Espers, for that matter), but because she knew that she had finally made it to the stage where Kamijou fought. It felt like she had finally caught up to that boy whom she had been chasing for so long.

And then, he had tossed her aside. She clenched her fist hard, remembering how the Hawaii incident had ended for her. Knowing him, he had blown her off to avoid getting her mixed in with his issues and not because he hated her or anything. But who was he to rob her of her own choice? Who was he to keep sticking his head into others' business, often doing so in the most rude, intrusive way possible, and then bar others from intervening in his fights?

"That..._hypocrite_. Ohh what do I care anyway! That idiot can just do as he pleases!"

Oh, and which idiot would that be, _Onee-sama_?" A formal voice practically dripping with sugar asked. Mikoto's face flushed and she immediately turned away from her junior.

"N-n-n-no one! You must have been imagining things, Kuroko, ahahaha!" Mikoto deflected weakly.

"You can't possibly be thinking of that boy, could you?" Shirai knew that boy as he had saved her life during that unfortunate incident with the Tree Diagram Remnant incident, and not too long after, he had actually gone on a date with her Onee-sama ("I'm losing...to an ape like _this_?! Gwaaahh!").

Her blushing face and vehement denials were more than sufficient an answer for Shirai.

"I knew it! It _is_ him! How could you do this, Onee-sama, when you have meeeee...!"

"_Kuroko_!" Lightning zapped out and deterred the groping hands of Shirai Kuroko.

"Well, whatever. Like I said, I don't care about that idiot anymore. If he doesn't want my help, he can just go fight on his own." She whispered the last sentence. Too bad she was not aware that Shirai's hearing selectively improved whenever she was the one speaking. She wondered if she should be happy that her prospects had improved, or if she should be sad that her beloved Onee-sama had been seemingly locked out of someone else's life. But that someone was fighting, so perhaps it was good that Onee-sama was kept away from hardship? Shirai sighed. Misaka Mikoto was a kind person, one who would smile even through torture if it was for the sake of someone she loved. A person like that would feel tormented just knowing someone they knew and loved was out there fighting a battle she could have no part in.

Shirai cast her eyes down. _I don't like the way she feels so strongly about you, but w__hoever you are, you'd better come back and greet Onee-sama with a smile. She won't rest easy until she knows you're fine. I'll won't tolerate anything more than that, though! She's mine!_

And the two girls walked off to continue with their preparations.

* * *

**Part 4**

Mr Colbert was currently overseeing four common school helpers carry away the spiky-haired boy on a stretcher.

_"Sylphid will help carry that boy."_

_But, the second they had placed that boy on the back of the blue dragon, the majestic creature had reared violently and thrown him off. It might just have been Colbert's imagination, but had the dragon only thrown him off when his right hand came in contact with its skin?_

_"Kyui! Kyui kyui!"_

_"What's wrong, Sylphid?"_

_"Kyui kyuiiii!"_

_Rubbing his head in confusion, Mr Colbert said, "It's alright. I'll call for some commoners to come and have him taken away. If Sylphid throws him off again, it could be dangerous for him...keep your chin up, now, Miss Tabitha. I think there is something odd about this boy. It's not your fault,"_

_The students slowly dispersed as 4 men from the kitchen staff came down to help Colbert carry the boy away._

All magical means had failed, and they were forced to resort to mundane methods. Once they reached the Healing Wing, he was set down on one of the beds.

"Marc! Come and take a look at this young man!" Colbert called out to the minor noble who performed healer duties at the Tristain Academy of Magic.

A young black-haired man wearing stylish black-rimmed glasses, had been feeding his familiar (a bright red and black ringed serpent) some meat, but came over swiftly at Colbert's words and checked Kamijou's vital signs. "Looks like he's sleeping or something. A little pale, but that could be his natural skin tone for all I know. Minor cuts and bruises, like he fell hard from a short height. What happened to him?"

"You won't believe this, but..." Colbert recounted the events of that day.

"Come on, Mr Colbert, sir. You can't be serious! A commoner as a familiar? Please! And a guy who came flying in through a portal and who self-healed his severed arm? Not even a square-class water Mage with 50 years of experience in healing could do that!" Marc whipped out his wand and set Kamijou up with basic healing spells while he talked.

"Question my entire class if you want, Marc. Even if I was mistaken, there is no way so many students could have been seeing things, is there?"

"Oh, I _will_ look into it." Marc promised. "But let's say you're right. If that Zero student of yours ["Don't be rude, Marc."] really managed to summon a human familiar from some distant land, then I guess it wouldn't be too far fetched to assume that someone else could be summoned at the same time. After all, 'summon servant' works by creating a portal to a Mage's destined familiar and pulls them through time and space to the Mage. Since Miss Zero keeps messing up her spell work, I guess she could theoretically create another portal by accident and call another familiar to her side."

"Marc, you know as well as I do that each Mage is only allowed to contract with one familiar. This is a time-honoured tradition since the beginning of-"

"Yes, yes, _I know_. This guy isn't a familiar, but...shall we say, a _byproduct_ of Miss Zero's summoning spell. Besides, this is all just in theory, ok? Anyway, I suppose you brought him here not just here to heal him, but also to investigate him, right? I can help you with that. I'll find out as much as I can about him, if you do the same for the other familiar. Putting both their stories side by side and comparing them might give us a better picture of what's going on."

"Well, that's helpful of you."

Marc looked aside, a look of irritation crossing his face. "You're not the only one who wants to get to the bottom of this, Mr Colbert. There's something really off with this guy."

"What do you mean?"

Marc scowled at Kamijou and spat, "_My spells aren't working_. I set him up with some basic broad spectrum healing spells that will fix up cuts and bruises and minor internal injuries - in other words it's a simple remedy for the few times he fell earlier. But I could feel my magical power dissipate within seconds of being cast." Marc had been paying close attention to Kamijou's body and the progress of his magic, even as he was conversing with Mr Cobert, and he could tell something was wrong.

"Well noticed," Colbert praised honestly. "Like I said earlier, my spells didn't work on him either, when I cast them on him earlier. This resistance to Magic seems somehow linked to his right hand."

"I'll patch him up and question him when he wakes up. I'll send word via Asclepius." Marc gestured towards his snake familiar.

"Right. I'll go question the other human familiar too."

The two noblemen parted ways there, both determined to solve this little mystery.

Neither of them knew, but Kamijou Touma had unwittingly set in motion a great chain of events just by coming to Halkeginia. His power was no ordinary one. It was "nothing", "zero". And yet, it was everything. An entire war had been started over it, and it had also been there to end that same war. It had could oppose all the supernatural powers in the world, and yet, could not defend itself against a simple knife. It was the Fantasy Killer, the Hope and Fear of magicians the world over.

Imagine Breaker had arrived in Halkeginia.

_To Be Continued_

Chapter 2 preview

_"YES! I can finally get away from Bayloupe and go see my beloved"_

_"Whatever world you're in, the golden rule applies: you'll need money to survive. How about working for me, Mr Kamijou?"_

_"What?! A-a-a-academy C-c-city?! A-amazing! Are you a cyborg?! Show me your 1001 transformations!"_

_"13 hours_

_We'll meet up in Academy City District 7 13 hours from now_

_At the Kamijou Residence"_

_"__Lessar - remember to learn how to open the gate properly_

_If you don't...this is goodbye forever, y'know"_

___"Just you wait, you big IDIOT! I'll cross the 9 worlds and kick your butt for blowing me off in Hawaii!"_


	2. Chapter 2

HOPES and FEARS

Thank you all for the wonderful, thought-provoking comments!

Chapter 2: The Movement to Find that Boy. _Kamijou_Faction_

**Part 1**

Imagine Breaker had disappeared from the face of the earth.

Those 10 simple words were enough to move whole organisations. Traditional command structures, old rivalries and enmities, boundaries between Science and Magic - all these were ignored altogether, and people came together in ways nobody would have dreamed of before this - all to find out what had happened to the boy named Kamijou Touma and to rescue him, if it came to that. Individuals rose to take a stand for what they believed in. Leaders stepped up to the challenge of coordinating the movements of a great number of powerful individuals.

This was the true power of the Kamijou Faction. This was what a certain Aztec magician had feared, and come to respect.

_November 15_

_Kaori joined_

_Kaori changed the subject to "Kamijou Touma Coordination Net"_

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**Kamijou Touma Coordination Net**

Elizard

Evening all

No need for lengthy intros

We all know why we're here

Keep your messages short and to the point

Kaori

This net is for coordinating our decisions

Intel Net should be setup by now for sharing info

Moto, keep us updated on Intel Net

Motoharu

Yup.

First things first,

Necessarius and co reached Baggage City

A few hours ago

Doing analysis now

Kaori

Good

Wait

Is Index linked to Int. Net?

She's there too, right?

Stiyl

Linked through me.

We're at Ground Zero now,

Analysing area with Lessar.

Kaori

Anything?

Stiyl

Smells of Norse Magic

from Lessar.

Bayloupe

This may sound odd coming from her leader,

but you probably shouldn't take her words at face value

Stiyl

You're right about that

But I agree with her

Looks like we're dealing with bifrost

Kaori

The rainbow bridge?

If he went through that

then that means

Agnese

He's in Asgard?

Heaven?!

* * *

**Between The Lines 1**

Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Vallière was on edge. It was the first morning after her unexpected (read: Disastrous) attempt at summoning a familiar. Thanks to that incident, rumours were flying all over. The best ones went along the lines of "I heard Louise summoned two familiars! How could that Zero accomplish that?!" (Wrong. She had only one familiar, and he seemed to be the more useless of the two commoners who had appeared yesterday) and "I heard the Zero summoned a noble as a familiar! He's a powerful water mage who healed his own injuries!" (Wrong again. If only her familiar really was powerful), and the really bad ones went along the lines of "I heard she ripped some random commoner out of his normal everyday life to serve her! She can't master her own magic, so she just dominates commoners?" (Wrong. And besides, didn't commoners exist to be dominated by nobles?) and even "She can't get a boyfriend, so she resorts to common boys. I bet instead of asking the Holy Founder for a Familiar, she asked him for someone who could love her! Hmph. What a lowlife." (WRONG WRONG WRONG! Shut up already!)

But it was not these malicious rumours that had her so worked up internally. Just before breakfast, she had been told something by Mr Colbert.

"_Miss Vallière, we need your cooperation regarding yesterday's incident. Would you kindly see Mr Marc in the Healing Ward with your Familiar? I have already talked to Madam Chevreuse and gotten her permission for you to skip your morning lessons._"

Marc Bonhomme was..._unfortunately acquainted_ with her. As the resident healer, he knew Louise well as he was the one who had to patch up students who had the misfortune to be nearby when she attempted spellwork. He had initially been nice about it, but every man has his limits, and he soon turned sour and snarky every time she was involved in the Healing Ward's cases.

Besides having to face a guy like that so early in the morning, she also had to deal with her familiar and the other gentleman who had seemingly been summoned by her. Hiraga Saito was an uncivilised young man, and had no clue how to interact with persons of higher social status than him (well, perhaps it was only to be expected of a Commoner who was apparently from a different "world", if his fantastic claims were to be believed). That morning, he had immediately started drooling when he saw the "humble" breakfast afforded to the nobles in the Alvíss Dining Hall. And then he had had the gall to complain about the "rich" breakfast he had been given. Many commoners couldn't even have the bread and water he had!

Even so, despite her misgivings, there was one silver lining. She did not have to face the rest of her classmates in the morning at lessons. By the time she saw them next, she would at least have some answers to the many questions she and indeed, everyone else, had. Steeling herself, she finished her breakfast, daintily touched her mouth with a fine napkin and got up.

"Hey, you. We're leaving."

"What, so fast? Nobody else is getting up...hey! Stop pulling me! N-No, not the ear!"

"Shut up! Can't you see you're making a scene?! If you'd just obeyed me, this wouldn't have to happen!" she scolded. Finally, her stupid familiar got up and walked beside her in a sloppy, unrefined manner.

"Keep your back straight, will you?"

"Fine, fine. Now where are we going, O Great Mistress?"

"You really need to learn to stop questioning your mistress!" Saito started to protest at these words, but she said smoothly, "We're going to the Healing Ward."

"Healing ward? What, you mean like a sick bay? A school doctor? Oooh I wonder if they have nurses there?" he started drooling again. Louise cocked an eyebrow at his strange behaviour, but didn't reply. She herself did not know exactly what was going to happen, a fact she was not about to let slip to her familiar.

* * *

_November 15_

_Motoharu joined_

_Motoharu changed the subject to "Kamijou Touma Intel Net"_

_Lessar joined_

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**Kamijou Touma Intel Net**

Motoharu

Update

Our best guess so far is

That Kami went over bifrost

10777

The rainbow bridge?

That connects the nine worlds over the World Tree Yggdrasil?

Motoharu

Yeah

Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim,

Midgard, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Nidavellir

Niflheim, Muspelheim.

Ranked in order of their levels.

The stories say that each world has its own special race - Gods on Asgard, Light Elves on Alfheim, humans on Midgard, and so on.

But those are, ultimately, stories

Legends that modern magicians can use to recreate a magical occurrence from the past.

We'll know just how useful these legends are when we see it for ourselves

Lessar

Question

How did that boy even do it?

I mean with his hand?

Seria

Good question

His hand was cut off

That's why

Lessar

…

I'm sorry for asking

Won't that make it difficult for the two of us?

Motoharu

Perv

But more importantly

So far, stories say bifrost connects Asgard and Midgard

But can they go to other worlds?

Can lesser mortals like us traverse the bridge?

Lessar

Look who's talking, Siscon Sergeant!

But it should be possible

There was a record from 6000 years ago of a world gate being closed between our world and another,

So travel between worlds has probably been done before.

I'm not sure how to do it, but if I see it being done, I guess I can replicate it

Silvia

Should be possible

All of us are busy, but I guess Ollerus can spare some time to open the gate to bifrost

The rest is up to you

But

Even if we can use bifrost

You should choose which world you want to go to carefully so you don't waste our time going to the wrong world.

You could always backtrack and try somewhere else but that's a waste of time.

Motoharu

That's a thought

How *do* we know which one he went to?

Seria

Hmm. I don't know magic

but I think I know a way to find him

* * *

**Part 2**

Louise and Saito entered the Healing Ward of the Tristain Academy of Magic. It was a large, roomy area, with the walls and ceiling painted in soothing shades of blue. The light was soft and lit the room amply without much glare. There were 15 beds in the ward, each with white sheets, a thick, luxurious blanket and a privacy curtain. There was a desk at the front of the room and a slightly-open door leading to an office near the desk. Saito saw the boy from yesterday sitting at the side of a bed, still wearing his orange T-shirt and black pants with his jacket on his lap. Sitting near him on a chair was another guy wearing stylish black-rimmed glasses who looked about 20 or so. He was wearing black robes and was twirling a wand in between his fingers, indicating his status as a mage. The bald teacher from yesterday was there was well, standing behind Black-Specs and reading from a notebook. When Mr Colbert looked up and saw Louise, he drew another chair for her. "Have a seat, Miss Vallière. You must be wondering why I requested your presence here."

"Yes, Mr Colbert. As she said this, Saito made to grab another chair, but Louise snapped, "On the floor! A familiar is not meant to be at the same status as nobles!"

"Yes ma'am," Saito said dejectedly and sat on the floor. Marc and the spiky-haired boy both cocked an eyebrow at this, then Marc began talking.

"This guy here can't speak our language. We called you here thinking you might be able to help us translate."

Louise puffed up her chest with pride. "Leave it to me! I'll try my best to decode what this gentleman has to say!"

"I wasn't talking to you." Marc rolled his eyes. "You're the main player here, HeragaSaitoh ["It's _Hiraga Saito_!"]. Here, have a seat," Ignoring Louise's cries of indignation about interfering with _her familiar_, he drew a chair for Saito and got him to take a seat. "I need you to translate for me here."

"O-ok. Sure."

Marc faced Kamijou directly and spoke. "Ok. What's your name and where are you from?"

Saito relayed the message across to Kamijou. He spoke uncertainly, wondering what language the other boy was receiving his speech in. He did not know it, of course, but this was a peculiarity of the "Tongues" spell that had been cast on him so that he could communicate with everyone. Saito had not cared about this particular fact, but found himself thinking about it as he talked to the spiky-haired boy who looked somewhat Japanese. He did not know what language the other boy was hearing his words in. All he knew was that he could most likely understand him. And he was right.

Kamijou gasped slightly upon hearing his words and replied, "Oh, so you're Japanese too! I'm Kamijou Touma - from Academy City."

Saito gaped at him. "What?! A-a-a-academy C-c-city?! A-amazing! Are you a cyborg?! Show me your 1001 transformations!"

Kamijou face-faulted. "So _this_ is what the rest of the world thinks of us? No...you're mistaken. I can't do anything like that..."

"Next question!" said Marc loudly, not wanting the two guys to get sidetracked and have their own internal conversation. Just as Colbert had expected, the two familiars seemed to be from the same region and could speak the same language. Saito thought that this was due to the Tongues spell, but Marc and Colbert knew better. Since magic could not work on Kamijou, the only reason Saito was able to understand Kamijou was that they really could speak the same language. It was that simple.

Louise folded her arms and pouted. Saito stared at her.

"This is ridiculous. Why do I have to come all the way out here for this idiot familiar to act as a translator when you could just use the Tongues spell?"

Marc glared at her. Had this _idiot _not been observing anything the day some unknown force brought to Halkeginia the inexplicably-powered Kamijou?

"There's no way magical methods could-" but it was too late. Louise was already drawing her wand. Marc, Colbert and even Kamijou's eyes widened and they made to stand, evade, or to simply put out their right hand. Only Louise carried on as if it were normal and Saito simply looked at her. She smiled confidently and cast the Tongues spell.

* * *

**Kamijou Touma Coord Net**

Motoharu

Update

We should be able to find Kami if we follow him over bifrost

Silvia said she'd get Ollerus to open the gate to bifrost for us

After that we're on our own though

Elizard

Very well.

Silvia is dependable as always.

Now, we need a team

An extraction team to bring our boy back.

Any volunteers?

Kaori

...

I think it's more difficult to restrict the team's members

Than to look for volunteers

There are many who'd want to go, but have important duties here on earth...

Elizard

I volunteer

Kaori

Qhar!

I mean What!

Don't be ridiculous, Ma'am!

We can't possibly send a Head of State out there!

Once you leave Britain, Curtana will cease to protect you!

But more importantly, my Amakusa Catholics are clamouring to go

We are ready to leave at any time

Agnese

We are prepared to send as many battle nuns as you need

10032

The Misaka network has given its consent to this plan.

We are not experienced with magic and religion, but with your guidance, we will work alongside you.

Motoharu

Actually

I'd advocate a small team of specialists

At least, we should send in a small expeditionary force

Before a bigger party goes in.

The members, IMO, should be:

one or two Norse Magicians to open the world gate

enough muscle to survive any fight

The members must be from both the science side and magic side to deal with contingencies

As for equipment, we still need something to detect Kami's presence

Like Radiosonde Castle

But obviously smaller

Seria, you said something about an idea?

Seria

AIM diffusion fields

When multiple Espers gather, their AIM fields aggregate

This aggregation will react to threats…

Like the presence of the fantasy killer.

The effect is worldwide,

Although the closer Kamijou is, the bigger the change

It's not 100% foolproof though.

Motoharu

Espers naturally have AIM fields

If they gather, the fields may resonate...

Seria

But of course, you won't get anywhere just putting some Espers together

You have to use special equipment to detect the changes

If you're searching a whole world

You'll need *really* sensitive equipment

Remember that thing the #2 obtained some time back?

Motoharu

Hm.

I see where this is going.

I'll have to go then.

Seria

To increase the odds of success

We have to make our measurements more accurate

One way is to make the changes in the AIM field more noticeable

Motoharu

As long as our Espers have similar powers, the changes to their aggregated AIM fields should be noticeable

10032

In other words, some Misakas would have to be part of the team.

I volunteer as tribute, says Misaka as she references a certain novel.

Bayloupe

I'll volunteer Lessar. I'm sure she'd jump at the opportunity to go...

* * *

**Part 3**

By the time the smoke had cleared, the edge of the bed was completely scorched, and so were Saito and Louise's clothes, to a small degree. Marc had created a small, controlled explosion of water with his magic and thus protected himself and Colbert. As for Kamijou, he should have been caught in the blast, seeing as the spell had been directed at him, but he was completely fine. He was stuck in an awkward position between standing and sitting on the bed, and he was holding out his right hand, which was smoking lightly.

"A magician?!" he exclaimed. Marc snapped, "Took you long enough to realise! Oh, but then again, this girl is a lousy excuse for a mage so I guess it's an easy mistake to make."

"H-how rude!" Louise stuttered. But it was clear she had failed in her spell. But wait just one moment...

"Marc! Did this young man just...speak directly to us? In a language we can understand?" Colbert asked.

"Ahn?" Marc frowned, then looked at Kamijou - then gasped. "You're right - he did! How the hell did that happen?"

Kamijou just stared at both of them.

"Hey - do you understand us? Do you get what we're saying?" Marc excitedly asked Kamijou, completely forgetting the string of questions he was supposed to be asking. The Japanese boy listened to his words, then beamed.

"Yeah! I get what you're saying!" He turned to Louise. "Thanks!"

Louise was shame-faced just a while ago, but now was holding her chin high up in pride, unable to hide her flattered smile. Even she could get some things right sometimes.

"But, I don't understand something," Kamijou suddenly declared. Louise's smile slipped as everyone turned their attention towards him. "Magic shouldn't work on me. I know I definitely dispelled that magic just then, so why...?"

Colbert simply smiled and gave a vague answer, "Well, it doesn't matter does it? As long as we can understand each other..." Everyone was stumped, and decided to take his answer at face value. His eyes narrowed when everybody else looked away. Of course he didn't believe that. Kamijou really was not affected by the "Tongues" spell at all. As Saito had privately noted before, this spell worked in a peculiar way. A suitable analogy for the spell went like this: Casting the spell on Tristanian-speaking Jacques Dupont was the same as giving Jacques a super-translator who could speak any language and would follow him wherever he went. This translator would translate his words from Tristanian to Albionian when he spoke to Albionian-speaking John Smith and to Germanian when he spoke to Germanian-speaking Peter Müller. Working in reverse, when Peter and John spoke to Jacques, the translator would translate their words to Tristanian for Jacques.

This led to two methods of using the Tongues Spell. _First_: Cast the spell on Jacques Dupont, so he could understand everyone, and so everyone else could understand him.

_Second_: Cast the spell on Peter and John, so that they could understand Jacques and talk to him in a language he could understand.

In this case involving Louise and Kamijou, Colbert recognised that the second method of using the spell was in effect. In this room, everyone had had the spell cast on them (except for Kamijou, with his _exceptional_ right hand, Colbert thought critically), so they could speak freely in any language and they would all understand each other. But if Kamijou were to leave this room and speak to, for instance, the Headmaster, neither would understand the other.

Of course, this problem would be solved if the Headmaster were to cast the Tongues spell on himself, but how could one ask a noble to wave his wand for small matters like these? How could _every single noble_ Kamijou were to contact be asked to cast the spell on themselves for his convenience? The world did not revolve around him! And that was just the beginning. The translation spell thing was small fry compared to the fact that magic did not work on him. Thinking about it conservatively, this was a _scandal_, nothing less. However, without showing any emotion on his face, Colbert tuned out these thoughts for the time being and listened to what Marc had just started to say.

"You'll be staying here until you make a full recovery. Until then, I'll try and get you accustomed to our language...and to Tristain in general. I can now understand everything you say, so it shouldn't be too difficult." Colbert nodded in approval. It seemed Marc was thinking along the same lines as himself just then.

Saito's head twitched, as if he had just thought of something, and said, "Oh yeah, you know you're in another world, right?"

"Another world? What's that supposed to mean?"

"As in, literally another world. We're not on Earth anymore." Kamijou frowned, but Saito continued, "This is a world called Halkeginia - and it's a world of magic."

Marc narrowed his eyes. What was this talk of different worlds? He hadn't been told anything about that!

"Oh?" Kamijou said sceptically. "Do they speak French in other worlds?" He had heard French before, thanks to his encounter with a certain mage in Hawaii who used the legend of Cinderella to devastating effect, and could recognise that Marc and Colbert had been conversing in that language. He must be on Earth if he could hear that language, he reasoned.

"French? Where did that come from? But never mind that! We're seriously on another world! If you don't believe me, _look up at the sky this evening_."

He seemed to really believe it. But there was one more reason Kamijou didn't buy it.

"Look, Hiraga. I don't mean to belittle you or anything, but I really can't believe that. There's a good reason why." As Saito looked questioningly at him, he asked, "Tell me, how did we get to this supposedly different world?"

Marc answered for him, "Magic. The students of this academy have this ritual where they summon a magical servant, called a familiar. My familiar is Asclepius [the snake had slithered onto Kamijou's bed without him noticing, and he jumped back in fright, quite comically]. Hiraga here was called by Louise to be her familiar. You came in through the same way. Louise summoned you and you came in through the portal she created. But..._another world_?"

"So, it's by magical means? Well, that's not supposed to be possible," Kamijou smiled ruefully, looking down at his right fist. Marc narrowed his eyes, then suddenly swung his wand. A small arc of water formed in front of his wand and solidified into ice. The crescent-shaped block of ice suddenly flew towards Kamijou.

"Eee!" he shouted in fright, and reflexively held out his right hand. A noise like shattering glass resonated through the room and the crescent shattered into ice dust.

"I suppose that's why you say it's impossible? This right hand that just..._denies_ the possibilities of magic?" Saito relayed Marc's words and Kamijou replied positively.

"My right hand is the reason why I can't have come here by magical means. You say I came in by a portal? That portal would've shattered just by touching my right hand."

"Hmm? _You don't remember?_"

_H-he knows about my memory loss?_

"_Your right hand was cut off_, remember?" Kamijou relaxed upon hearing this. Marc wasn't talking about _that_ incident. But then, the impact of the medic's words hit, and Kamijou blanched. Everything came back to him. He trembled as the memories of recent past came rushing back. He had left Hawaii for an important mission. He had arrived in Baggage City following a string of clues. After stumbling around trying to figure out what was happening, he had fought the Dvergr Marian Slingeneyer, who almost unsheathed the sword that heralded Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods. He had defeated her. He had encountered a blonde girl in a leather outfit and a pointed hat.

_His right hand had been crushed by that girl_.

Bile rose up in his throat just remembering it. But he forced it down. He had things to do.

"I can't be wasting time here. I've got things to do. Thanks for taking care of me. But I've gotta go."

"Go where? Back to your hometown? Weren't you listening when he said you're in a different world now?"

"I can always take the portal back, right?"

"And now you're forgetting about your right hand?" Marc argued.

"I'll just cut it off again!"

There was no hesitation. Marc slowly breathed out, hardly believing the boy's reckless answer.

"Listen, there are people waiting for me back there. I didn't mean to do it, but I abandoned them by coming here. I've gotta get back. There's a girl lying injured in Baggage City and it's my own fault I wasn't able to save her or the man she saw die before her very eyes. I'm going back to that city, even if I have to cut off my hand!"

Marc closed his eyes. A small smile worked its way across his face, and he looked away, as if defeated. Then, he suddenly opened his eyes. A fierce light shone in those grey orbs.

_"Asclepius!_" His snake slithered forward and wound itself around Kamijou's leg, slithering up smoothly.

"Eee! Get it off me!"

Before he could do anything, the snake bit his left arm.

"Urghh! Aah..." and Kamijou fell.

"What an idiot. But you've got my interest, kid." Marc smiled.

* * *

**Private Chat**

_Stiyl joined_

_Stiyl changed the subject to "Private Chat"_

_Motoharu joined_

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Stiyl

Kanzaki - one of us should go

since we're both well-versed with Norse magic

Kaori

Agreed. Both of us could go, but that's gonna be problematic

Stiyl

Yeah

I think you should stay, though

With Gremlin on the ascent, we can't waste our manpower

I'm still expendable, but I don't think a Saint should be sent out to other worlds at a time like this

Motoharu

Such a cruel thing to say

Not that I'm any different nya~

Stiyl Magnus

I owe him for all he did for Index.

Kaori

Have you forgotten? You fought equally hard just to prevent additional strain from being forced on Index's mind

Stiyl

Doesn't matter

I'm going.

My final choice.

I'll leave Index in your hands

_Stiyl left_

Kaori

What about you?

Motoharu

Hey hey

Don't make me say it again

Kaori

You idiots

Any requests?

Motoharu

Oh, you know ;)

_Motoharu left_

* * *

**Between The Lines 2**

The Library of the Tristain Academy of Magic.

It was a grand library with a splendid collection of historical books collected over the ages. As far as amateurs were concerned, it might even be said to be comparable to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Adding to the similarity was the fact that there was a forbidden section within the library that only teachers were allowed access to - Fenrir's Library.

One man had been coming to the library everyday for the past few days - a bald teacher by the name of Colbert. Unlike many nobles, who devoted their time to worldly activities, Colbert preferred intellectual activities like reading and inventing all kinds of things. He could often be seen in the library reading up new concepts to help with his hobby.

Today, however, he was not here for such trivial pursuits. There was something that had caught his eye and it concerned the futures and, by extension, the lives of three people, one of whom was his student. He was thinking, of course, about the Springtime Summoning Ritual that had recently concluded.

One girl had summoned two humans - two commoners - when she performed the ritual. The first one, she had successfully created a contract with. This boy was then marked with runes he had never seen before. It was a mystery, but to be honest, it roused his curiosity, _nothing more_. It was unusual, but to be fair, it _was_ a successful contract. Familiars were summoned based on the summoner's personality and powers. If a common boy like Hiraga Saito was the best fit for Louise, as decided by the guiding hand of the great Founder Brimir's magical legacy, who was he to question it? But nobody said it was wrong to wonder about the characteristics of these familiars, and so, he would research those runes he had seen.

Besides _that_, he wasn't forgetting the other matter - that of the boy with the broken hand. Something about the boy was _off_.

Magic was a power granted by the Founder to his chosen ones, who upheld his ideals and kept their bloodlines pure. There were many laws that magic was expected to follow. Unlike a country's constitution, these laws were not man-made laws that reined in magic. Instead, they were like Newton's laws (not that Colbert had heard of _those_), which described how the natural world worked. These laws were numerous, but there were two that were of special interest.

Firstly, _commoners_ _could not use magic_. Colbert had looked up the name Kamijou or Touma in old records, but he found no mention of the name. Of course, he could be going by a false name, but, still, the results were not promising.

Secondly, _magic fell into five categories or _elements_: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, _and the long lost_ Void._ Almost all major spells would be under these categories.

_So what was that? _What kind of magic ('For it just had to be magic!', Colbert reasoned) did that boy cast that day? He came through a portal right after Louise's familiar (are the two events related? _Perhaps_), with a missing right hand. He gave off an aura that intimidated everyone. Then, that aura was crushed and his hand grew back. Notably, the boy had said something just before the 'aura' was crushed. It was in a tongue Colbert did not know. Was it an incantation? He didn't know.

When he had first spoken to Kamijou in the Healing Ward, Colbert was prepared for an attack, which thankfully never came. The boy himself seemed confused (an act? Possibly). He had put aside his tougher questions and let him rest while Marc took care of him and taught him to converse with other Tristanians.

It was not an act of weakness or naïveté. It was done out of concern for fairness. After all, the boy had to have a shot at answering the questions put to him. It was only right to afford him such consideration, especially if he was a noble, whether he himself knew it or not.

* * *

**Kamijou Touma Coord Net**

Stiyl

You can count me in as well.

I will accompany Lessar and the others.

Elizard

Excellent

So we have Lessar, the Norse specialist

We have Stiyl Magnus, to assist Lessar and to coordinate the team's movements

We have a number of Academy City Espers who will serve as our apparatus to measure the presence of Imagine Breaker

And finally, we have Mr Tsuchimikado to operate the equipment to find Imagine Breaker and to help in gathering information.

All the members are able to defend themselves from a variety of threats.

By the way, Ms Misaka - would you pin down the exact number of Espers who are coming along?

10032

I have consulted the remaining Sisters

We have agreed on sending 5 of us.

This number is small enough to have little impact on the #1's powers

And it is big enough to create an AIM field aggregation that can show visible changes

Elizard

Excellent. Thank you, dear.

Mr Tsuchimikado - do you approve?

Motoharu

It looks fine to me

But, hey, you're the boss. You decide.

* * *

**Kamijou Touma Intel Net**

Silvia

Queen Elizard has already contacted us

Ollerus approves of the plan, and will help to open the gate leading to Bifrost

Motoharu

Sounds good

Just for everyone's info

We'll be sending an Expeditionary Force of eight

Stiyl Magnus

Lessar

Me

And 5 Espers

Lessar

YES! I can finally get away from Bayloupe and go see my beloved

Motoharu

Lessar - remember to learn how to open the gate properly

If you don't...this is goodbye forever, y'know

Lessar

Come on, who do you think I am!

Silvia

Ollerus will be at Academy City in 13 hours from now. Have your team meet up with him

* * *

**Part 4**

Asclepius was a very intelligent serpent. It was poisonous, but was also able to vary the effects of its poison. Just then, it had injected Kamijou with just enough poison to knock him unconscious, but no more than that. At this point, Louise had already been sent back, but her familiar remained (Colbert had to convince her to leave him behind for a short while). When Kamijou started stirring, Marc abandoned his paperwork and took a seat next to his bed.

"Hey. Sorry about that. But I can't let you do anything as stupid as cutting off your own hand for no reason. I _am_ a healer, after all. 'First do no harm' and all that."

Kamijou just glared at him. Then he started feeling a little stupid. He really needed to cool his head.

"_Such misfortune_."

Marc looked at him sympathetically. "Well, I suppose you're right about that. Must've been difficult to have been torn from your daily lives and forced to come here...But moping isn't gonna get you anywhere."

"You've got a plan?"

"No. You two say you're from a different world. I'm not buying it just yet, but if it's true, I can't help you. I don't even know who _can _help you. But what I _can_ do is help you make the most of your time here. Well, at least I can for Kamijou. Louise won't let me do anything to poor little Hiraga Saito. It's a noble's pride thing." he smirked at Saito's expression, then smiled at Kamijou.

"Work for me."

"Hah?"

"Whatever world you're in, the golden rule applies: you'll need money to survive. How about slaving away under my care, Mr Kamijou?"

"Huh? How? Aren't you a medic? I have no medical knowledge whatsoever! And that slave bit is going overboard, no matter how you view it!"

"Doesn't matter." Marc waved away his concerns and ignoring the last sentence, which made no sense to him. "Magical healing has two parts - the first is to stop the damage from spreading or to stop the source of damage. The second is to remove whatever damage the body has already suffered. Think of it as trying to empty a bathtub that's continually being filled. The first part of a healer's job is to turn off the tap. Only then do you get around to bailing the water out to empty the tub. That right hand of yours - if you can complete the first part of the healing process just by touching the patient, my job is essentially halved. I can save the money spent on medical reagents and can finish a job in half time."

"Huh...?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'll make sure to pay you for it - one Gold coin every two days. I'll see to it that your food and lodgings are taken care of. Besides, there are other benefits" He smiled at Kamijou. A gold coin every two days was pretty high by common standards. It added up to more than half of a lower-ranked knight's annual salary.

"...and what are those? Just to let you know, I don't exactly plan on staying for long, in case you hadn't noticed!"

"You get my eternal gratitude."

"_Screw that_!"

"Just kidding," Marc howled. "But seriously. I can teach you the local language so you don't need Hiraga around to translate for you. I can show you how things work around here. You and Hiraga both need that. I'm alright but other nobles won't like the way you both behave."

His face turned serious. It felt as if someone had dimmed the lights in the room, even though nothing had changed. The two boys both felt it.

_Huh? Did something happen?_

_T-this aura...he's just like Tsuchimikado, changing the mood at the drop of a hat..._

"Don't tell me you guys hadn't noticed. Ok, maybe I'll excuse Kamijou since he's been stuck here, but Hiraga should have seen it - the difference between commoners and nobles" He gave a brief explanation of magic-wielding nobles and the common people they ruled.

_It's almost like Academy City, where Espers gain social status thanks to their power Level. But at least in Academy City, an Esper can improve her standing by working to increase her Level. _Kamijou mulled it over in his head.

Of course, he didn't know about the top-secret Parameter List.

Marc continued, "You can't just behave any way you like with nobles. At some point, you're gonna have to appear in front of the Headmaster and explain things to him. Taking him lightly won't do you any favours. Especially considering your power, Kamijou. You understand why, considering the political situation here, don't you?"

Kamijou clenched his fist and nodded. It was not the first time he had been in such a situation thanks to his right hand. _It was not the first time…_

"Hiraga is fine, since he is a familiar. Your mistress can stand up for you-"

"Sounds unlikely,"

"-don't interrupt me. Anyway, Kamijou is on his own. There's nobody here to help you. That's why I'm telling you to work for me."

Marc smiled tightly. This wasn't a result of his overflowing goodness, not that he was that good anyway. This way was easier for him anyway. Unofficially, his job was to investigate Kamijou before those standing on a higher level, like Colbert or the headmaster looked into it themselves. This was how things worked in organisations like the Academy. He'd think something was wrong if the higher-ups had so much time that they could personally dive into cases like Kamijou's (even if he was supposedly from a different world). Dealing with Kamijou like this was more likely to yield the answers he wanted. Going the extra mile to teach Kamijou how to conduct himself in Halkeginia was a bonus and would also put himself, the teacher, in a good light. On top of all that, there was another reason.

_It gave Kamijou dignity._

He had used the word 'slave', but had done so jokingly. The rate he had mentioned was pretty good, considering his accommodation and meals were already taken care of. Considering all these in his head, he looked Kamijou in the eye.

"I personally find it mutually beneficial. So? How about it?"

* * *

**Kamijou Touma Coord Net**

Elizard

Well then, it is decided.

I pray for your success, ladies and gentlemen.

_Elizard left_

Kaori

13 hours

We'll meet up in Academy City District 7 13 hours from now

At the Kamijou Residence

From there, the Expeditionary Force will move along Bifrost to the other worlds on Yggdrasil and carry out an extensive search for Kamijou Touma

Make sure all of you pack your equipment properly. Take whatever you need, but don't bring too much.

Does anybody have any questions?

Nobody?

In that case, I wish everyone good luck. We'll be there to see you off tomorrow. Rest well.

_Kaori left_

_Stiyl left_

_Motoharu left_

_Bayloupe left_

_10032 left_

_Agnese left_

_Seria left_

* * *

**Kamijou Touma Intel Net**

Motoharu

Alright everyone

The plan has been finalised

All those involved, your leaders have been briefed

We'll meet in 13 hours, Kamijou Residence.

_Motoharu left_

_Silvia left_

_Lessar left_

_Stiyl left_

_10777 left_

_Itsuwa left_

_Seria left_

* * *

**Part 5**

Misaka Mikoto stared at the screen of a small handheld computer she occasionally used for hacking purposes. The service she had just hacked was a pretty secure one, but it had not been designed to resist a hacking attempt from an Academy City terminal - or by an Academy City Level 5 Esper who could control electricity. After a few attempts, she had fooled the system into making her an unseen observer on a certain pair of private Instant Messaging chat groups.

The one who had planted this idea in her head was a girl she had seen before. On the night Kamijou Touma had first met her after coming back from Russia, many girls had surrounded him all of a sudden (she still fumed thinking about it). One of them was a girl with black shoulder-length hair with the fringe tied back. She had a long skirt and an ample chest (That was the most obvious thing about her, to Mikoto).

Anyway!

This girl had randomly approached her that morning.

_"Good morning, #3! How are you?"_

_"Huh? Who are you?"_

_"Just a concerned senior."_

_"Senior? Heh~ Well thanks but I'm fine."_

_"Oh, I didn't mean you."_

_"...Ok. I'll bite. Who did you mean?"_

_"Your boyfriend, who else?" _That was so direct Mikoto had spat out the coffee she'd been drinking.

_"W-W-WHO TOLD YOU HE WAS MY BOYFRIEND?!"_

_"Oh. He isn't? Well, then it's alright. I don't think I need to burden you with this."_

_Mikoto faltered. The senior girl started walking away_

_"Hold it!" She stopped. Without turning away, Mikoto said, "Tell me."_

_"Are you sure? Once you fully immerse yourself into the world surrounding this boy, things will never be the same for you. There's no need to go this far for an acquaintance."_

An acquaintance? Things will never be the same?

_"It's fine. Just tell me."_

He was no ordinary acquaintance. Not since he learned of the Radio Noise and Level 6 Shift Projects. Not since he had defeated the #1 Esper with just a strange right fist and a steely resolve.

_"I can handle things myself. Somehow"_

Things had never been "the same" for her. Not since that night in October when she witnessed him wilfully suppressing the pain of such horrific wounds to rejoin a fight, and wouldn't stop even after she begged him to let her fight in his stead. Not since that day when she reached out to him from a VTOL aircraft over a floating structure in Russia and he refused because he still had "things to do".

_I'll have that idiot know the feeling of waiting for others to come back from fighting for his sake!_

The senior girl had smiled mysteriously at her and given her a series of instructions. She followed them as soon as she could, and found a treasure trove of information. To put it _very_ briefly,

1. Kamijou Touma had gone missing, and he was not even present in this world. She would have questioned this - or rather, outright disbelieved it - before, but after seeing Gremlin and the Magic Side, she was not so sure anymore.

2. There was a massive movement under way to rescue him. While she didn't recognise most of the names she encountered, she had been surprised to see Misaka 10032 and 10777 present as well (_Those girls...doing this sort of thing without letting me know?! There'll be hell to pay!)_

3. The movement communicated using a certain Instant Messaging platform, and they had split their communication into two "Nets". The Coordination net to make executive decisions and the Intelligence net to compile and refine information before presenting it to the officers in the Coord Net.

Mikoto could not understand a large part of the discussion, but there was something very easily understood - an Expeditionary Force was going to be sent out to find Kamijou Touma and, if need be, to rescue him. The assembly area for the team was the Kamijou Residence in District 7, and the time was 0300 hours, November 16. _More than half the team was made of the Radio Noise Clones. Her Sisters._

_November 16th, 0300 Hours. Kamijou Residence._

_Just you wait, you big IDIOT! I'll cross the 9 worlds and kick your butt for blowing me off in Hawaii!_

* * *

**Between The Lines 3**

A "human" floating upside-down in a tank in the strongest building in the world smiled. This was why going through unofficial channels was so effective. By bypassing official leaders like the Pope or the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, he had ensured that someone would take action. Laura Stuart had made use of Imagine Breaker in the past, but she obtained no profit in going out of her way to rescue him now. And the Pope was even less likely to send people after Kamijou, seeing as they used to be enemies. The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church probably did not know or care about Imagine Breaker (so it seemed).

But Queen Elizard, with her flexibility, on the other hand...

Kanzaki Kaori, with her influence and personal relationship with that boy, on the other hand...

The Radio Noise clones and the Original, with their numbers and resolve, on the other hand...

...All these were different. They would actually lift a finger, and much more, as soon as they heard Kamijou had gone missing.

A little information leaked to the right persons at the right time had gone this far. Kumokawa and Tsuchimikado had contacted the people Aleister had expected them to contact, and by setting things up properly, these two separate networks had merged. Of course, there had to have been some external influence at work in the shadows. Accelerator had surely heard about it and had done something to speed up the process. Kumokawa Seria had used her connections to obtain equipment (it was probably for the best that this particular equipment was sent far, far away from Academy City). The fact that Ollerus was still fine with getting involved in this relatively small way was a convenient piece of good fortune. Whatever the case, the end result was that there was a large number of people who knew what had happened and were willing to extend their help, be it in the form of fighting physical battles or in fighting using their influence and planning skills.

Leaders had naturally rallied their organisations together and reached across the boundaries of nations, time zones and even those of Science and Magic to share what they knew and to put together a plan. Men and women gravitated towards powerful personalities - like the Queen and Saint Kanzaki, and listened to what they had to say. Those who were not too well-versed with this kind of thing had taken the trouble to acquaint themselves with what they were dealing with - while Misaka 10032 acted as the representative of the Misaka Network in lieu of Last Order (due to her _troublesome_ personality, as well as Accelerator keeping her away from the darkness), the rest of the Sisters were working hard by reading up in libraries of magic, interviewing key personnel and generally making observations, all for the sake of learning more about the world of magic, to which they had just barely been introduced. Granted, they had an advantage in terms of numbers and had a strong connection that facilitated mass learning, but the fact that 10032 was able to stand on such a platform and make decisions showed just how far she and the rest of the Sisters were willing to go for that one boy. (_Hmm. Maybe some adjustments are needed. But that can come later._)

The effort to bring back Kamijou was now underway. Now, it was time to wait and see what would happen.

_To Be Continued_

Chapter 3 Preview

"_T-T-T-THAT'S WHAT TIPPED YOU OFF?! DIEEEE YOU PERVERTS!__"_

_"Let's just carry on - to Muspelheim! Be careful now, it's gonna be one __hell_ of a ride nyaa!"

"_Magic is power, isn't it? If I lived in that world, I'd want power, if nothing else, to defend myself against those others who went down the path of magic__"_

___"I will not bow to anyone against my will!"_

_"There was something incredibly amazing and, at the same time, dreadful, in that volcano and in the Lagdorian. And now, we have something like this in this boy's right hand, if the reports are accurate."_

_"I can worry about my own familiar, thank you very much, Mr Kamijou,"_

"_Tel malheur!"_


	3. Chapter 3

HOPES and FEARS

Chapter 3: Across The Bridge To Another World. _FIRST_CONTACT_

**Part 1**

Academy City.

District 7.

Kamijou Residence.

November 16th.

0300 hours.

Nobody had shown up late, not even that incorrigible erotic-character girl from New Light. In fact, she had probably worked the hardest of the lot, sharpening her edge by checking, improving and rechecking her spiritual items and weapons. She had also been brushing up on the more elusive aspects of Norse Mythology, looking for anything that might give her an edge.

It wasn't like the others had been slacking off either.

9969 sisters had been collecting, sharing and discussing information on the magic side. There were, of course, safeguards against the enemies of magic gaining such knowledge, but after all the things that had happened, people like Orsola Aquinas, Kanzaki Kaori and many others were more than willing to equip the girls with whatever basic knowledge they needed.

Tsuchimikado's preparations were a lot simpler: two handguns and sufficient ammunition plus the items he needed to cast his spells and a first-aid kit just in case. He was also in charge of carrying the Tweezers and using them. In addition to his own personal stores, he had also been in charge of packing a change of clothes for his classmate whom they were going to rescue, taken straight from his own cupboard. Lessar had protested, intending to handle this matter herself (and Tsuchimikado was inclined to let her have her way just for laughs), but Kanzaki firmly shut her up and gave the multi-spy a knock on the head.

As for the team leader, Stiyl Magnus, he had been busy preparing hundreds of laminated rune cards and other spiritual items. He had also packed loads of cigarettes ("for communication purposes").

"Ok, I'm starting the briefing." said Kanzaki. She was standing at the front of the room, with Stiyl's team and those who had come to send them off. Lancis, Index, Ollerus, Silvia, as well as Sisters Lucia, Angelene and Agata were all present. The 5 Radio Noise sisters who were part of the team were doing one last check on their weapons along with Lessar, while the boys were standing around.

"As previously agreed, Stiyl will be coordinating and conducting this undertaking. Tsuchimikado will be in charge of information and intel. Everyone is counting on you both, so _make sure you do your job properly_. Especially you, _Tsuchimikado!_"

"Of course, _Nee-Chin_! Who'd you think I am?" Kanzaki ignored him and continued.

"There are nine worlds on Yggdrasil. Kamijou Touma is on one of them, but we don't know which one. Our plan is to move along the rainbow bridge Bifröst. From there, the team will move on to each of the nine worlds to search for Imagine Breaker. ["It'd be better if we could have multiple teams headed for different worlds, wouldn't it?" "True, but we can't afford the manpower and we don't have the equipment," "I thought there were, like, 10000 of these Sisters?" "Yeah, but I know a certain Esper who's gonna suffer if any more of them leave the earth, nyaa" "What the hell's _that_ supposed to mean?" "Heh~ isn't sisterhood a wonderful thing, nya?" "_Tsuchimikado! Lessar! Be quiet and listen to the briefing!_"]. Ollerus here will open the gate for us, but after that, Lessar will have to handle it herself. Once you reach a world, use the Tweezers to find out if Imagine Breaker is present, then proceed to search for him using the spiritual items we have prepared. When you have found him, return and send word to us."

_"Got it!"_

Ollerus stepped up.

"Alright, it's almost time to go. Step up and I'll show you how to open the gate to Bifröst."

Lessar got up and approached him.

* * *

**Part 2**

In the Healing Ward of a certain Academy of Magic, a boy lay on a bed and held up his right hand, staring at it in boredom. While he was being worked to death everyday between preparing medical items for his employer and receiving hardcore French [_Tristanian!_] lessons from the aforementioned employer, he had been critically thinking through things.

After resisting it for a while, he had finally accepted that he was on a different world. The system of Magic here was too different, there were too many small "things" that simply _did not_ _belong_ on Earth, for various reasons, and finally…there were _two freaking moons in the sky_.

He had considered various ways in which he could reconcile his observations with the belief that he was still on Earth, but none seemed plausible – most of these ways ended with the single notion that Necessarius would have wiped out such a large gathering of magicians. He also reasoned that he might have been under an illusion, but repeatedly tapping his head and rubbing his eyes with his right hand did nothing.

_Such misfortune_.

After accepting it came the part where he asked himself _why_. Was it Gremlin? He didn't know how he fit into Gremlin's plans, but they had sent an entire airborne structure the size of an asteroid after him just to locate him. It didn't seem too far-fetched to imagine that they sent him off to another world.

_But what was the point of that?_ The blonde girl in the witch hat stopped his power by _squeezing his freaking wrist_ and crushing his hand off his arm (it wasn't everyday you could use a phrase like that!). Why not just kill him there and then?

He also considered that it may not have even been because of Gremlin. He was currently in a Magical Academy where the students had rituals. Hiraga Saito had been summoned by Miss Zero during one such ritual, and somehow, he was sucked in as well. How did that work though, considering he was in Eastern Europe and Hiraga was in Akihabara when it happened?

He suspected Louise, but, just looking at her, it seemed more and more unlikely. Everything about her seemed nothing more than what it looked like. She was a below-average student in this Academy of Magic. She was incongruous; it was like seeing a Level 0 studying in Tokiwadai Middle School. Besides, she had nothing to do with him now. Since he had come to this world, she hadn't really talked to him.

Of course, it could've been a ruse, with Louise pretending to be uninvolved. And she didn't have to talk to him. Maybe her job was just to bring him in, in which case her role was already over.

Shaking his head roughly, he ran his hands through his hair. It was simply frustrating to think about. But there was some good news, he reflected. He had accepted Marc's offer – he needed the money to get around in this world, he reasoned, and he also needed the other "benefits" Marc had mentioned. He needed to speak the local language and know his way around. Once he could read and speak properly, he could go about researching by talking to people and reading materials here. Colbert and Marc were astonished that other worlds could even exist, so they had no useful information – but there _had_ to be someone who knew _something_. And when the time was right…

He could go back. Hopefully it wouldn't be too late. Hopefully, he wouldn't have cut his hand off for nothing.

* * *

**Part 3**

"There. All set, says Misaka as she hopes this concept works as well in real life as it does in theory," a girl wearing the winter uniform of one of Academy City's finest girls' schools intoned.

She had just finished setting up a radio mast used for rebroadcast purposes. And she was doing this on a pathway that barely looked solid. The glass-like floor was illuminated with the swirling colours of the rainbow. There was no sky in this area; instead, there was a black space everywhere other than the rainbow pathway - a space filled with stars and cosmic objects.

_Bifröst._

The rainbow bridge connecting Asgard and Midgard. Although it should be noted that the destination this time was not Asgard; they were using the bridge to head to a different world.

"Very good. Let's try this out," Tsuchimikado took a black plastic block the size of a juice carton out of his bag and connected a long black stick and a set of headphones to it. This was a team radio Receiver/Transmitter handset and he had just plugged in an antenna and a headset. This was to be their primary means of communication: a radio net with its range extended via rebroadcast masts set up along the rainbow bridge. He put the headset on and spoke, _"Tsuchimikado. Comms check, comms check, over"_

_"Kanzaki, reading you loud and clear. What's your progress over?"_

_"Tsuchimikado, we just got on the bridge, heading towards Muspelheim first, over."_

_"Kanzaki, understood. Comms back when you've reached Muspelheim. Don't forget to set up the rebroadcast antennas regularly over."_

_"Tsuchimikado, roger out."_

Tsuchimikado disassembled the components of the RT and put them back in his bag. He clapped his hands and addressed the team.

"Ok! Now that we've got that outta the way...we've got a spy in our midst, nyaa" he made this sudden announcement as he stared pointedly at one of the Sisters and smiled lightly. Stiyl looked shocked, but Lessar had the same expression as Tsuchimikado.

"..."

"..."

"...what gave it away?" asked Misaka Mikoto, taking off the goggles perched on top of her head and putting them away.

Tsuchimikado and Lessar deadpanned, "The shorts, obviously."

"_T-T-T-THAT'S WHAT TIPPED YOU OFF?! DIEEEE YOU PERVERTS!_"

* * *

**Part 4**

_"Such misfortune!"_

_"Tel malheur!" _Marc corrected him. He had been advising Kamijou to consciously speak Tristanian instead of speaking his native tongue and relying on the tongues spell to have it translated. The boy had risen to the challenge magnificently, but old habits die hard, it seemed.

As for the reason why Kamijou uttered those words? He was lying on his back on a grassy field, while a horse trotted around in front of him. He had fallen off when the horse reared.

"Seriously, why do I have to learn how to ride a horse?" he snapped in Japanese.

"What'd you think? Are you seriously gonna walk and run everywhere? Or do you expect people to carry you around? And haven't I already told you to speak to me in Tristanian?!" On "Earth", Kamijou's world, there was no need for horses or other beasts of burden. But here, horses were essential. Especially for their current job - buying medical supplies for the Healing Ward from the Capital City, Tristania (specifically, from a shop named Peyman's Potion Shop).

"Ugh. I know..."

"You understand why you're doing this, don't you?"

Kamijou looked away.

"Yeah. Language...plus essential skills. I'm gonna need both of these in order to survive here," he added as an aside, "Even though I don't plan on staying,"

"But you have no way of leaving - not yet, at least. If you want to get out of here, you need help - help from a _noble_, quite likely. Getting help from a noble is hard enough, but your case is especially tricky. And on top of that, you can't even speak their language."

"Well, isn't that what the spell's for? I mean the Tongues spell,"

"Idiot! Have you any idea how rude it is to ask your senior to keep up with _your_ pace? How're you even gonna start asking a noble to help you with an attitude like _that_?"

"Well, I got by fine back where I come from..." Kamijou made up an excuse.

"Well that's not good enough here. And in any case, for all your complaints, you've actually been working hard, haven't you?"

Kamijou got up silently. It was as Marc said. It hadn't been too long since he had come to this world, but he had already learned enough to converse with Marc like this (albeit with many mistakes and mispronunciations thanks to his accent). It wasn't because he was just that good at language skills – in fact, it wasn't like he could understand every word that came from Marc's mouth. It was more a matter of understanding some of the words and putting together a complete picture of what he said based on context and tone. It sounded complex, but Kamijou was able to ad-lib his way through it. And besides, there was still another reason why he worked so hard at the language.

It was his drive to get back home. He needed to talk to the right people, go to the right places and read the right materials. With a new light in his eyes, he approached his horse. He did so slowly, but confidently. As Marc had advised him, horses were pretty intelligent (was that a trait of this world or did it apply on earth as well? He decided to look into it next time) and could sense the kind of 'presence' he gave off. If he was scared, the horse would be scared too. He had to approach bravely and let the horse 'understand' that he knew what he was doing. After all, the animal's life was in the rider's hands just as much as the rider's life was in the animal's hands...er, hooves? Horses were ridden into battle and along treacherous roads. A skilled rider could spell the difference between life and death in such situations - and the horse _understood_ this. Kamijou calmed himself and took a step forward.

"Alright, here we _go!_" he mounted up - only for the stirrup to come loose and to cause him to lose his footing and hit the ground.

_"Tel malheur!"_

* * *

**Between The Lines 1**

Hiraga Saito was a hungry man. He had made fun of his mistress following a certain unfortunate incident in an alchemy class

_"'Louise the Zero.' Now I get it~ That's just perfect~ Rate of success is zero. But a noble despite that... wonderful!"_

He had made fun of her continuously in this ridiculous manner, and she had gotten super-mad at him.

_"Th-th-th-this familiar, how dare it say s-s-s-such things to its m-m-m-master?"_

And like that, his punishment was handed down.

_"One meal cut for every time you've said 'Zero!' And that's final! No exceptions!"_

No wonder he felt like copying Kamijou's catchphrase these days. But it seemed the Goddess of Luck was shining on him today. As he stood outside the dining hall, barely having the strength to return to his mistress' dorm, a young woman carrying silverware out of the Dining Hall took notice of him.

"I-is everything alright?"

Saito looked up, startled. The woman he was facing looked to be around his age, and was dressed as a maid. She had short black hair with a neat hairband. Saito thought the freckles on her face were rather cute.

"Oh...I'm ok," he happened to lightly wave his left hand while saying this, and the girl seemed to notice something.

"Are you...by any chance, the one who was summoned by Miss Vallière?"

"You know me?"

The girl smiled and explained that the rumours about that incident had spread pretty fast throughout the school.

"Anyway, my name's Siesta!"

Saito smiled back. "My name's Hiraga Saito…just call me Saito. Are you a noble as well?"

"Oh, no, I'm not! I'm just a common maid who serves the nobles here in this Academy," she denied with a nervous smile and while waving her free hand about.

As Saito smiled politely, his stomach rumbled. Siesta looked surprised, but then she laughed cutely.

"You must be hungry. Why don't you come with me?"

* * *

**Part 5**

"_Allons-y_,"

"Uh. Yeah," Kamijou responded to Marc and urged his horse on. He had more or less got the hang of it, after many mishaps. He always checked and double-checked the horse and its attachments first before getting on, and this had paid off. He could ride properly without falling off now. They had gotten the supplies they needed, and it was now time to return to the Academy.

"So...tell me more about your world, Kamijou,"

"Huh? Why?"

"I'm curious. Plus, you can think of it as language practice!"

"Well, let's see..." Kamijou said this in French, looking up with a thoughtful expression. Marc cut in, "Don't tell me all the boring stuff. I already know there are no horses there!"

"Urgh. How'd you know I was gonna talk about the transport?" Kamijou sweat-dropped.

"How're the people there? Is there a system like Halkeginia's? I mean with nobles and commoners."

"Actually, no. Magic works differently in my world." He gathered his thoughts and spoke again, "Here, magic is something that nobles are born with. In my world, just about every human has the capability to perform magic, but few actually go down that path,"

Marc was taken aback. "Why? Magic is power, isn't it? If I lived in that world, I'd want power, if nothing else, to defend myself against those others who went down the path of magic,"

"Well, how do I explain this? Ok, forget what I said earlier, Magic _is_ something anyone can do. But there are those born with natural _power_ and _talent_. And there are those who _envy_ these. There are people who don't have any power themselves, but they want power to achieve a certain goal. These people will invariably go down a path to find power. And they find Magic along the way," He deliberately left out any mention of Espers. Academy City had strict rules on leaking information, after all.

"So Magic is accessible to all, but is found only by those who need this power," Marc pulled a face. "Sounds _really_ convenient, doesn't it?"

Kamijou clenched his fist and looked at it, remembering the Magicians he had met before. Stiyl. Kanzaki. The Amakusa Catholics. Even those who had tried their best to kill him, like the members of God's Right Seat. Even those who had tricked and deceived him to achieve their goals. He closed his eyes and relaxed. "Of course not. Magicians do make plenty of sacrifices. They are passionate souls. They may fight calmly and analytically, but below that façade lies a heart burning with a certain desire. This is what it takes to go down the path of magic. It isn't for those who want to back out halfway. If one doesn't have the desire to go as far as they can for their dream, there's no need for magic anymore."

Marc tilted his head in wonder at the words he had just heard. "If you put it like that...it almost sounds as if the difference between Earth and Halkeginia is that the people on your side earn their power and pay for it with their souls. Well, in a manner of speaking, anyway. But here, a select few are born with it. It's as if power is something to be gotten through hard work over there, while it's the basis for an exclusive club here,"

"Something like that, I guess." Kamijou was surprised at the objective analysis.

"Hmph. I see," Marc said mildly. He then frowned. While talking, they had already entered the Academy and were riding to the central tower, but there was a commotion - noise was coming from the direction of the Vestri Court. The two men shared a look. '_Let's check it out_' passed between them, without actually being said.

"Gentlemen! It's a duel!"

Guiche de Gramont, the idiot skirt-chaser of the school, lifted his artificial rose high to cheers from the crowd. He was standing on the Vestri Court, where a crowd of students had gathered. Marc exchanged a few words with a boy standing at the outer edges of the crowd, then told Kamijou, "Hmph. Those two idiots had an argument over some stupid matter, and now they're-"

"Guiche is going to duel! His opponent is Louise's commoner!" someone shouted. Saito glared as he heard the last two words. He looked around, and his eyes met Kamijou. The mounted boy looked at him, alarmed. _What the hell's this?!_ Saito smiled bitterly and shook his head. _It's nothing. Just some stupid stuff_. Kamijou tilted his head. _Need some help?_ To his surprise, Saito glared at him and shook his head violently before facing Guiche. _Stay out of this!_

Kamijou's hand was hanging in the air, and his face was frozen in shock. Wasn't Hiraga a normal guy, completely uninvolved in Magic? Wasn't his opponent an actual Mage? He had to put a stop to this. But before he could urge his horse forward, Marc grabbed his reins to stop him. This exchange went unnoticed by Guiche, who had turned around to acknowledge the cheers and blow kisses at some of the girls. He turned around at last and looked straight at the black-faced Saito. With a cocky smile, he spoke.

"First of all, I commend you for coming here instead of running away!"

"Like anyone would run away!"

"Right then, let us begin!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Saito dashed forward. Kamijou was forcibly reminded of himself throwing himself at Magicians with nothing but his right fist's strange power. And here, another boy was doing the same, without even that power. He tried once again to go forth, but Marc was holding him back.

"Don't."

"But...!"

"Leave them be,"

Guiche had flicked his rose lazily, letting a petal fall to the floor. A metal warrior suddenly rose from the ground from the petal.

"What? He's using magic, against Hiraga? Isn't that overkill?"

Marc remained calm. "Yes. What'd you expect? Mages use magic. Obviously. But Hiraga knows what he's getting himself into."

"Even so, he's being stupid! He-"

"Just _leave it be_, will you?!" Marc snapped. "_This is a duel_. Interfering will just be bad for both parties. Let them settle their differences themselves."

Kamijou clenched his fist tightly and stared on. In the few moments he had spent talking to Marc, Saito had tried fighting the Warrior, but failed miserably. It was much stronger than him, and even if Saito managed to hit it, he just hurt himself on the hard armour of the summoned being.

"I guess I forgot to mention earlier. My Runic name is "the Bronze." Guiche the Bronze. Accordingly, my bronze golem "Valkyrie" shall be your real opponent." crowed Guiche. Kamijou and Saito both gritted their teeth furiously. It wasn't a fair fight, and Guiche wasn't even taking it halfway seriously. It reminded Kamijou of Fiamma of the Right, who sent so many proxies to fight him before taking the matter up himself.

"If you're worried about him, think about how best to tend to his wounds. That's what we're here for, anyway." Marc interjected, not unkindly. "De Gramont won't kill him. I can guarantee that. He lacks the will."

["_Guiche_!"]

"Why doesn't that put me at ease?" Kamijou deadpanned. He returned his attention to the one-sided curb-stomp. A thought came to mind as he looked closely at the combatants. He remembered what he and Marc had discussed not even an hour ago.

_It almost sounds as if the difference between Earth and Halkeginia is that the people on your side earn their power and pay for it with their souls._

["Oh, Louise! My bad. I'm just borrowing your familiar for a bit."]

_But here, a select few are born with it. It's as if power is something to be gotten through hard work over there, while it's the basis for an exclusive club here._

Was that what this fight was indicative of? Without even knowing it, were the two fighters representing the _truth_ of the two worlds?

["That's quite enough! And besides, duelling is strictly forbidden!"]

Hiraga Saito - the boy without "power" or "talent", standing up for himself, his heart burning against the attitude of a Halkeginian noble.

Guiche de Gramont - the boy who had been blessed since birth with "power", "talent" and other qualities.

["Only dueling between nobles is forbidden. Nobody has forbidden duels between commoners and nobles!"]

It was a classic struggle - he who had no power fighting against he who had it in spades. Despite himself, Kamijou was entranced by the proceedings. The Zero girl was desperately trying to stop the duel. But Hiraga was having none of it.

"...Wh-who's being beaten up? I'm just fine." He said, in an obvious show of bravado, and stood up.

* * *

**Between The Lines 2**

Professor Colbert lifted a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his brow. Constantly using the levitation spell was taking its toll on his body. But he had to continue reading and find out as much as he could. Even after days of searching, he had found nothing about "Kamijou" or "Touma". But he had uncovered some other interesting things.

There were instances in history where certain..._mystical_ items had been found. These "items" were varied, and there was almost no common thread between them all - except for one: in terms of their rarity and, perhaps X-factor, they were on the same level as _Void_. Religious texts considered them blasphemous. Liberal texts called them a blessing to the commonfolk against oppressive nobles. _Still_ other religious texts considered them a form of discipline against unruly nobles.

But while all these texts disagreed as to the deeper meaning behind these items, they agreed that, on a surface level, _the items were nigh-invulnerable against magic_. Each text referred to these items as being mysterious items with a strange power. But after reading them all and cross-referencing the different sources, Colbert concluded that this was a mistake - Instead of being mysterious items, these items were just ordinary objects that were possessed by a 'mysterious power'. The power came and went, transforming these ordinary items into extraordinary ones, and then leaving them as the same ordinary items as before. For example...

The Lagdorian Lake, wedged between Tristain and Gallia, had once been a divine lake. It was a place where magic had no power at all. Some Romalian priests considered it a holy place where all were equal before God and the Founder Brimir. Young nobles considered it a test of courage, and tried to bend the power of the water there to their wills - all of these failed, even a square-class mage who gave it his all. This strange aspect of the Lake had been in force between 4100 and 4000 years ago. By some coincidence, the Water Spirit of the Lagdorian Lake had seemingly taken a break during this same period. It had disappeared 4100 years ago, and then returned 4000 years ago.

The next item was a volcano in Gallia. About 3000 years ago, this volcano had erupted, and thrown volcanic ash everywhere. A veritable army of Wind Mages was assembled by the then-King of Gallia, but their combined spell of wind was of no use against the spreading cloud of ash. A historian lamented that it would have been better if these mages had simply tossed their wands aside and collectively sighed at the advancing cloud. The army stood its ground (although other sources reported that some mages broke ranks and fled), but was ordered back. Gallia could not, after all, afford to lose so many Nobles in such fashion.

There was a trend so far, Colbert noted. Water and Fire had been accounted for. Wind, Earth, and, dare he believe it, Void still remained. Flipping through all the different texts in the library on this subject yielded no results on either of these elements, though. There might have been something about a sword that resisted magic, but...Wait a minute. Colbert blinked. Before he knew it, he was reading a book on the familiars of Brimir, the holy Founder. He flipped through the pages slowly, and came to a page with different runic emblems on it. He frowned at one of the rune signatures, then took a piece of paper out of his pocket. It was the sketch he had made of Hiraga Saito's runes. He had always thought those runes looked odd, so he had sketched them, hoping to research them. He put the paper next to the page and compared the two runic signatures.

He almost fell out of the air in shock, having lost control over his levitation spell for a second. He floated back to the ground and ran, with the book in hand, to the Headmaster's Office.

* * *

**Part 6**

Hiraga Saito was lying on the ground in agony. He had already suffered several broken bones, and likely had internal injuries as well. Marc, shaking his head, was already preparing to stop the fight using his authority as a noble senior in age to these nobles and fix up the combatants' - well, just Saito's - injuries. But Kamijou stayed put, for some reason. Louise, on the other hand, was in tears already. Ordering Saito to stop had gotten her nowhere - so she desperately tried a different tack.

"This is enough! You did very well. I've never seen a commoner like you before!" she said, trying hard to smile.

"No...that's not enough," Saito breathed. Louise bit her lip in despair.

Obviously she hoped Saito would stop showing off and give up. But that was assuming he was actually fighting to show off. Kamijou knew otherwise.

"Hold on a minute,"

"What?" Marc stopped his horse and turned back to look at him.

"The fight's not over yet,"

"_Huh?_ What're you talking about? It's over. Hiraga can't move! Besides, weren't you the one who wanted to-"

"_Marc_."

"He...he has a reason to stand up and fight," Kamijou whispered. Despite himself, he did not want to intervene. Doing so felt inexplicably _wrong_. He remembered Birdway's words that day he came back to Academy City.

Magicians were those without Talent or Power. All they had was their resolve and a childlike desire to turn their dream into something real. But it was these small things that led to the opening of a world of possibilities. _Magical_ possibilities. He just needed to stretch out his hand and reach it...

"Are we quite done yet?" Guiche called out mockingly, clearly enjoying the show. Hiraga placed a hand on Louise's shoulder and pushed her aside slowly.

"...Hold your horses. I'm just catching my breath."

Guiche snorted derisively. He plucked another petal off his rose and let it fall to the ground. It transformed - into a sword. Taking it by the handle, he tossed it at Saito. It landed just in front of him, with the blade stuck slightly in the ground.

"If you're still willing to continue, then take that sword. If not, all you need to say is a simple "I'm sorry." Then I can just forgive you and be done with it." he intoned, oddly solemn.

Marc shot Kamijou a dirty look. "Now we're past the point of no return. If you hadn't stopped me there, we could've ended this peacefully. _But now he's gone and done it!_"

Kamijou just remained silent and looked on at Saito. The boy just looked at the sword.

"Understand? The sword. In other words, a weapon. It's the very least you commoners will need if you want to take revenge against us nobles. So as I said, if you're still up for it, take that sword."

Hiraga slowly reached for the sword. Louise swatted his hand away.

"Don't you get what this means, you _idiot_?! He's been playing with you up to now, but if you take the sword, Guiche will come at you seriously! He won't show you any mercy if you take it!"

"I can't go back to my world... Which means I'm stuck living in this one, right?" Saito muttered, almost to himself. He didn't look at Louise.

"That's right. So what about it?! Right now that doesn't matter!"

"I don't mind being a familiar... I can take sleeping on the floor... I don't care if the food sucks... Washing underwear? I'll do that too. It's not like I really have a choice. But..."

"But what?!"

"_I will not bow to anyone against my will!_" Saito roared, throwing his head up. Kamijou felt a slight chill, and realised he was holding his breath. Saito, operating on pure adrenaline, no doubt, thrust his hand forward and gripped the handle of the sword tightly. The runes on his hand started glowing brightly. Kamijou gasped.

_[Grit your teeth well, Strongest! My Weakest attack might shake you up just a little!]_

* * *

**Between The Lines 3**

Back in Academy City, a certain white-haired esper sneezed, eliciting a cruel laugh from his housemate. Meanwhile, the little brat next to him just kept chattering without stopping.

"And then-and then-and then we'll go hunting for prospective schools! says Misaka as Misaka tries to allure you with the prospect of a rosy school life!"

"Shut up, brat. Like such a thing exists,"

"Ohh? This Misaka wonders if there's some hesitation in your voice. Maybe _that boy's_ school would accept you? Then you could bow down to him and call him _sensei_-"

"_Are you picking a fight, bitch?_" Accelerator snapped. As if he was going to ask that guy to show him the path. But he did find himself wondering what had happened to him. After the whole Hawaii incident (after which he had silently sworn never to trust little brats who knew too much for their age), Kamijou Touma had just disappeared. He'd dropped right off the grid - shortly after the news broke that 27 institutions cooperating with Academy City had decided to cut ties with the capital of the Science Side. The #3 seemed to know something, but was very withdrawn at that time, and refused to speak to anyone on the return trip. He was about to pursue the matter on the flight back, but even WORST was staying away from her instead of making fun of her like she usually did - which to him was an indication not to disturb the Tokiwadai Ojou-sama. Who cared anyway. That guy had a habit of being involved in incidents all over the world; it wasn't like it was his business to account for his whereabouts.

_Well, whatever. I don't need fucking heroes or anything anymore._

More importantly, it was almost time for the Ichihanaran Festival. It was an important time for schools to show off their achievements to get more students to join them. Of course, he wasn't about to let Last Order (or WORST, God forbid!) join a school on the outside. There was no way he could let a clone of the #3 go to school daily, even if she was a younger or older version of the original. He was even prepared to home-school her if need be (a thought that his two 'mommies' had laughed at heartily). The more pressing concern now was about enjoying the festival.

Of course, Accelerator was not somebody to 'enjoy festivals'. But Last Order and WORST were raring to go. Worst could go and die for all he cared (only his public opinion), but he wasn't going to let Last Order go anywhere and everywhere by herself. He had to mentally prepare himself to go one whole round of Ichihanaransai, and then some, this year 'round.

He sighed.

_This is fucking stupid. The great Accelerator, #1 esper of Academy City, babysitting a brat during festival season._

And then, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it~!, says Misaka as Misaka dashes for the door!"

"Delivery for a...Mister A-Accelerator," A very nervous deliveryman announced. The recipient of the letter hobbled over and signed out his delivery before WORST or Last Order could grab it in their curiosity. His "delivery" was just a plain envelope.

"Hoh~? Somebody actually posted a letter and ahd it delivered right to your doorstep? Sounds important," cackled WORST. "Maybe it's a love lett-"

"Shut up." he took the letter back to his room and opened it. The outside was pristine, with no stamp, address or anything. Turning on his electrode for safety, Accelerator opened the letter.

It was a memory card. The tiny label on it held the words "Kamijou Touma Coord/Intel Nets _Transcript_"

"What the hell?"

* * *

**Part 7**

"That common boy actually ended up winning," mused Professor Colbert in wonder.

"Indeed," agreed the Headmaster, Old Osmond. The two professors had been watching the entire fight through a magical mirror.

"Well, this proves it, doesn't it?" Colbert asked, slamming his book shut. "That boy is the legendary founder Gandálfr!"

"I can understand that without you broadcasting it to the whole world, Mr Colbert," said Old Osmond kindly. Colbert turned silent, looking a little embarrassed.

"Gandálfr - the legendary Familiar. If memory serves, he was the familiar of the first Void Mage, the Holy Founder Brimir, is that right?"

"Yes, that is true,"

"And he was able to stop entire armies by himself?"

"Yes. The incantations for Void were lengthy and left the mage open to attacks. So the Familiar was needed to stop enemies from interfering or harming the Founder."

"I see. By the way, why is this boy here?"

Colbert face-faulted. "Like I said, he is the Familiar of Miss Valliere!"

"Oh. Right. And what kind of mage is this Miss Valliere?"

"She is, umm-"

"A very talented Fire Mage? Her vibrant mane seems to suggest so,"

Colbert looked confused, then he realised the headmaster was pulling his leg.

"Please take this seriously, sir! As for Miss Valliere, her element is still unknown. She is...a failure, I must say. I really cannot mince my words here,"

"A failure, huh~? A puzzling duo to be sure."

"Yes."

"So how did an average boy contracted by an untalented mage become Gandálfr? What an utter paradox. I just can't see where the ends meet."

"In any case, I believe it is the find of the century, sir! We should report it to the Palace right awa-"

Osmond turned around suddenly.

"No, we should not."

"Eh?" was all Colbert could manage. He composed himself and asked, "Why not, sir?"

"There is no need for us to hand over Gandálfr and its master to those fools at the palace. Give them a toy like this and they'll just cause another unnecessary war. Court advisors have too much free time on their hands and like fighting far too much."

"Oh..." Colbert rubbed his head, realising the gravity of the headmaster's words.

"I will take responsibility of this case myself. You will not speak of this to anyone else, Mister Colbert."

"Y-yes! I understand!"

"Anyway...what about the other boy?"

Colbert had guessed this question would come his way.

"I have been researching that as well, Old Osmond. I have yet to find anything concrete, but allow me to share with you what I have read,"

He talked about the "Items" he had been researching and listed the examples he had found. He talked about the Terrible Volcano and the Holy Lagdorian Lake.

Osmond listened carefully.

"Amazing, Mister Colbert. Amazing, indeed, the times we live in,"

"Do you have an idea as to what this other boy may be, Old Osmond, sir?"

"To be frank, I don't." Colbert's face fell in disappointment when he heard this. "But I will tell you this. He, too, is something special. I don't know for sure, but _I believe it to be true_. There was something incredibly amazing and, at the same time, dreadful, in that volcano and in the Lagdorian. And now, we have something like this in this boy's right hand, if the reports are accurate."

"So...your instructions, Old Osmond?"

"Same as before, Mister Colbert!" Osmond said brightly. "Let's wait this out and see what happens,"

* * *

**Between The Lines 4**

Misaka Mikoto glared defiantly at Tsuchimikado Motoharu.

"So? What're you gonna do?"

The multi-spy pulled a face. Mikoto tensed, building up static power in her fists.

"Well. Nothing, I guess, nyaa~"

"Eh?"

"Well, you heard me nya~. I'm not about to do anything, so just relax, will ya?" It wasn't just the shorts, Tsuchimikado thought to himself. _Your manner is completely off compared to the other sisters. You fumbled too much with your weapon, kept fidgeting, didn't click _so_ well with the others...I could go on and on. But mainly the shorts, heh~._

"Oi Tsuchimikado! What's going on?" Stiyl was understandably confused. He had already drawn a rune card, ready to activate it.

"We were supposed to go on this mission with 5 clones of the #3 Esper in Academy City. Instead, we've got 4 clones _plus the Original_. Meet Miss #3. [_" Hey! I have a _name_, damn it! Geez, small wonder you're friends with _that _idiot!_"]"

"If you noticed it so fast, why didn't you say anything? How do we know if she's safe?!" Stiyl thundered.

The spy simply smiled enigmatically. "Well, I thought it was alright, nya,~"

Mikoto and Stiyl both looked surprised at that. Tsuchimikado explained.

"She's not here to derail our mission nya~ If anything, she'd be an asset,"

"And how do you know this asset won't turn toxic down the road later ["Hey. I'm right here, y'know!"]?" Stiyl asked through gritted teeth.

"Well, for starters, we're magicians and she's an Esper. She needs us to open the gate back to Earth. She'd fail _very badly_ if she tried it herself, as we all know ["Ehh? Why? What's with that emphasis on 'very badly'?!" "Onee-sama - Esper powers and magical powers are incompatible. We will die bleeding out of every blood vessel if we attempted basic magical techniques, says Misaka as she recites what she heard from Motoharu-oniichan." "EHH seriously?! Wait who the hell's _Motoharu-oniichan_?!"]. Although she probably won't complain if we were to leave her and Kami-yan _all by themselves_ on Asgard or wherever nya~"

"A-a-a-all by o-o-ourselves?!"

Stiyl breathed out smoke, looking ready to kill someone. He addressed Mikoto directly and spat out a question.

"For what did you even come out this far? Seeing as your sisters are here with us, I don't want to believe that you're an enemy, but I don't understand your actions at all."

Mikoto straightened up, "I heard that idiot went missing when these girls were discussing it on your messaging network. I wanted to come along and find him too...D-don't get me wrong though! I still owe him a lot and need to punch him hard for all the stupid things he's done ["Not another one..." Lessar said unpleasantly]!"

"Onee-sama, maybe you should be more honest with yourself, advises Misaka 10032,as she holds back laughter at your pathetic attempts to evade ["Shut uuuuupp!"]

Tsuchimikado turned towards Mikoto. "You said you listened in on our conversation. How did you know how to do it though?"

"Huh? Uh, well. This girl - she said she was a concerned senior - she showed me how. I think she was from that idiot's school... she had black hair with the fringe tied back and-"

"An impressive rack?"

"Yeah," said Mikoto absentmindedly, before realising what she had said with a blush and an incoherent shout at Tsuchimikado. The spy shared a look with Stiyl.

"Kumokawa Seria. If _she _put her up to this..."

"We have no time for this, Tsuchimikado." _This changes everything. We can't send back this girl now. I could fight her, but can we beat Academy City's #3? If every single one of us were to fight, maybe. But those 'sisters' will take her side for sure. In other words, 3 of us against 5 of them..._He glanced at Tsuchimikado.

The spy looked seriously at everyone, dropping his playful manner, and gave his reply.

* * *

**Part 8**

"Huh? You wanna go out to town? What for?" frowned Marc, glancing up from his paperwork and looking down. It had been four days since the duel. The whole school had been in uproar over Saito's win, and Kamijou and Marc had had to defend the Healing Ward against unruly students who wanted to see the Hero who had defeated Guiche the Bronze. Marc had gone into angst-mode by the second day and hexed anyone who entered (which almost got him in trouble when he blasted a well-meaning Professor Colbert).

Kamijou uncomfortably scratched the back of his head and said nervously, "Yeah, well. I thought I'd go to Tristania and mix around. It'd be a good opportunity to practise language…"

"Well, I'm here, aren't I?" he said testily."

"Uhh. You don't look free at the moment…"

Marc pulled a face, "I was kidding. Things have quietened since that idiot woke up and got his arse out of this place. Go. Just make sure you return by tonight, and don't let anything happen to the horse,"

"Eh? Oh…alright! Thanks!" Kamijou punched the air and ran out before Marc could change his mind. He had things to do in the capital city. The last time he had gone to Tristania, he hadn't done anything besides stand with Marc and listen while his boss bought medical supplies. He'd spent enough time waiting and learning at the Academy. He needed to start taking action. Going to town and finding out as much as he could from the locals would be a good step in the right direction. And, in any case, he had to get out and go somewhere. Sitting around just didn't feel right. He put on his jacket and walked over to the stables.

"Hey. Time to go, boy," he muttered, stroking the mane of the horse he had been temporarily assigned (a light grey horse called "Ghost"). The horse followed him out, and allowed Kamijou to mount up before moving towards the Gate in a leisurely trot.

"Such good weather today~" the Imagine Breaker boy smiled and breathed in the fresh air. Like this, it was almost too easy to forget that he had been sent into another world after getting soundly beaten by a Magic God. His expression slowly turned serious. He had adjusted remarkably well to life in Tristain, considering all that had happened, but his thoughts still lay with Earth. He had no ties to this place, but had plenty of reasons to go back to Earth.

_Academy City. His school. His teachers._

_His schoolmates. His friends. Index. Misaka. Tsuchimikado, Aogami, Fukiyose, Himegami and all the rest. His parents._

_Necessarius. Dawn-Coloured Sunlight. _

_Gremlin._

Gritting his teeth, he focused on the path before him. He would definitely get all the answers he needed.

Then, he frowned. What was that in the sky? It looked like a big blue bird. As the bird got close, he realised it was a dragon, and it was descending towards him like an owl swooping down on its prey.

"_Eeee!_" He squeezed the horse's body with his legs, urging Ghost forward. Thankfully, the horse complied, fast-trotting a few steps to the front. The quick action left him out of the dragon's trajectory. The dragon, which he could now see was blue and carrying two girls on top of it, one with blue hair and the other with red hair, swooped up and slowed down dramatically, before turning around to face him.

"_Kyui Kyui Kyuiiii!_" it 'said' dramatically, as if it were taking offence against him. The two girls on top were shaken (even the ice-blue haired girl with the glasses looked a little ruffled. Just a little).

"Geez! What's wrong, Sylphid? Why'd you have to swoop down like that?" Kirche asked, trying to fix her hair. Tabitha remained silent and adjusted her glasses.

"Maybe she recognised you for the witch you are and tried to throw you off!" crowed another voice. Kamijou turned and saw that it was the Zero girl. She was seated on a horse and riding in from the direction of the school gate, as was her familiar, who looked thoroughly exhausted. They must have been riding for quite some time, although Zero's face didn't show it.

"Ehh? What're you guys doing here?"

"We just got back from shopping," Hiraga moaned. "Oh my back's killing me…"

"Shopping? For what?" Kamijou frowned. Then he saw the item strapped to Hiraga's back. "Oh. Is that a new sword?"

"Yes I am!" A disembodied voice proclaimed. _Who was that?_ Saito didn't seem surprised to hear the voice, though. He simply drew the sword and held it horizontally for Kamijou to see. There was a movable part at the top of the sword, which started moving up and down by itself. And at the same time, the voice came back.

"I'm the legendary Derflinger! Pleased to meet ya!"

"Ahh! A talking sword?!"Kamijou cried.

"Yeah, I was surprised too! Apparently, there are sentient swords here. This one can talk and think. Wanna take a closer look?"

Kamijou thought about taking it in his hand. For all the fights he had gotten himself into, he didn't particularly like using weapons. But he'd never held a sword before, and wanted to know how it felt like. Just as he was about to extend his right hand, he realised something and stopped. "Ah. I guess I shouldn't use my right hand here,"

"Oh…you're right about that. I don't know what'll happen to this guy if he were to touch your hand," Saito said, lowering the sword a little. He didn't know much about Kamijou's powers, but knew enough to tell that it could negate magic. Derflinger clattered noisily for a bit, then quietened down.

"Hey boy…what's your name?"

"Me? Kamijou Touma,"

"Wow. Today is _really_ my lucky day. First, an interesting new owner, and then…_this_. I haven't felt this in centuries,"

"What're you talking about?" Kamijou asked politely.

"Oh, nothing. Just the tired words of an old blade," Derf said offhandedly. Before Kamijou could quiz him any further.

"Yes, a tired old blade indeed!" Kirche, the red-haired Germanian seductress, crowed. Kamijou blushed as he saw her running over to him, Louise and Saito.

"The sword I bought for you is so much better than that piece of trash! Isn't it, Darling?"

"Uh? Um, well…" Saito struggled for an answer – not because he was hesitant, but because he was too busy staring at Kirche's chest while she ran towards them. Derf replied in his stead.

"Hmph. Just because it's shiny doesn't mean it's a great sword. There's no way I'd lose to something like _that_!"

Louise glared at Saito, but before she could scold him for staring, Kamijou took the opportunity.

"Miss…_Vallière_, was it? Mind talking to me for a while in private?" Louise looked surprised at the request, but complied. They broke off from the arguing Kirche and Derf and the drooling Saito, and stopped a few metres away.

"I'll be blunt. Why did you bring me over to this world?" Kamijou started.

Louise was startled, but calmed down quickly. It was not like she hadn't expected this question, from either Saito or Kamijou. For Saito's case, her answer was straightforward – he was the familiar bestowed upon her by the Holy Founder. He was the being she had formed a contract with. But for this other boy…she had no idea how to answer him.

"I…don't know myself," she said honestly.

"It _was_ you, wasn't it?"

"I don't even know the answer to that," she shook her head. "Do you know everything about the Springtime Summoning Ritual?"

"No. It'd help if you can explain it," Kamijou said seriously. It would probably help to hear things from her point of view.

"Geez, this is why Commoners are so…Ok, I'll explain it just once, so you'd better listen!" With an intensity that gave Kamijou bad memories of the Railgun's bad temper, she explained the Ritual. Kamijou understood that the ritual was a rite of passage for all young mages in this world, and it involved having to summon a familiar that would serve the mage for life. Louise had summoned Hiraga. And barely minutes after the contract was made, _he_ had come hurtling through.

"Summon Servant is supposed to work only for one Familiar. By the time you came through the portal, I had already made the contract with Saito. Also, I did not even cast the spell after Saito came in to this world,"

"In other words, you didn't do anything to summon me. I just…came of my own accord,"

"Maybe…"

"Or maybe it's because you summoned both of us at the same time, but I came a little later?" Kamijou mused. "But never mind. It doesn't matter. Do you know of any way back?"

Louise bit her lip. "…No, I don't."

He raised an eyebrow and asked softly, "Then what about Hiraga? He seems like a normal guy, completely unrelated to magic…To pull him here to this world-"

A look of anger – and was that _guilt_? – ran across her face, but she quickly composed herself.

"I can worry about my own familiar, thank you very much, Mr Kamijou,"

With that, she turned her horse around and trotted back to the main group. Kamijou sighed. In the end, he just had even more questions than before., and now she'd probably be less likely to listen to him. Louise didn't know anything (although she could've been lying). And did she feel guilty about the whole thing? The whole thing was really starting to look more and more like an accident. Or maybe simple misfortune?

_Well, whatever_. _I'll just keep an eye out for any changes. For now, it's time to go to town_. With those thoughts, he rode off down the road to town.

* * *

**Between The Lines 5**

Tsuchimikado Motoharu had learned from a very young age what it meant to have your plans fail even before anything had properly started. He kept trying and trying again, planning over and over again to cover all contingencies.

"Considering our team lineup, your presence here could be very bad," Mikoto subtly shifted her centre of gravity. Tsuchimikado remained calm. He didn't know when the change had occurred, but he knew it had happened at some point - he stopped making such good plans, and made himself better at adapting to changes in the situation. He threw out the rulebook, and used screw-ups to his own benefit.

"_But it doesn't have to be._" Mikoto looked him in confusion.

Almost solemnly, he intoned, "We're here to find a guy who we can all agree has suffered enough already. If you're here to help us find him and bring him back, _I'm fine_,"

Mikoto straightened up. She had sneaked onto the team, asking her Sisters to cover for her. Getting exposed so fast was only to be expected, perhaps. But _this_ wasn't. [_But this isn't so bad either_]. Since he was indirectly asking her for her assistance, she would help out. After all, that was her intention from the beginning. She was just a girl concerned about a boy she cared about. And she wasn't the only one. Her sisters too had done so much (behind her back too, something she had yet to lecture them about!). How could she let them go off by themselves on a mission like this?

She relaxed and put her hands down. "Thanks. I'm glad you understand," Lessar simply yawned in boredom, like she had been expecting this, and Stiyl put away his rune cards, but he did not take his eyes off the Electromaster, not once.

_[I don't think you're a threat at this time. I know all about you and the nature of your relationship with Kami-yan. I doubt you'll betray us, or more importantly,_ him._ But that doesn't mean you're my friend. Turn on us, and you won't even have time to hear my Sorcery Name. I'll be the blade in your back, just when you think everything's alright.]_

Leaving that unsaid, Tsuchimikado smiled. This way was much better than starting a meaningless fight that would just derail the mission (forget 'derail', this would more likely just blow up the freaking tracks along with the proverbial "train").

"Don't worry so much nyaa~ I'm fine as long as you pull your weight and don't hold the rest of us back. Let's just carry on - to Muspelheim! Be careful now, it's gonna be one _hell_ of a ride nyaa!"

* * *

**Part 9**

Tristania, the capital of Tristain, was busy as always, with merchants and commoners walking the grounds, and nobles on horseback all around them. Kamijou looked around alertly, scanning his surroundings, just like he had done previously. For practice, he read every signboard he could see and tried pronouncing and translating the words in his mind.

_Taverne_

_Hôtel_

_Forgeron_

And so on. Where could he go first? Hadn't he read in those detective books that bars were places where plenty of stories were exchanged?

But of course, he couldn't go to a tavern. He didn't look old enough. Even if he was let inside, he'd probably be taken advantage of. He didn't want to come out having lost all his money and with nothing to show for it.

How about an inn? It was essentially the same as a bar, but without an age restriction. Nah, it would probably end the same way as the bar.

He wandered around the town for a while, wondering what would be the best way to proceed. In the meantime, he also thought of how he should proceed with his little information-gathering trip.

_Forget about asking for directions back home – only nobles can help me with that, and I can't just approach lightly. _

An interesting thought occurred to him. Back in Academy City, there were plenty of urban legends. It was, perhaps, only to be expected, in a city full of supernatural powers. But many of these legends started from, or led to, something real. Perhaps if he could find something, like a rumour or story, about something out of the ordinary – who knows? It might have been a clue to something from _another world._

He sighed. It was simply too fantastic a thought. Travelling between worlds was already impossible in this world, as far as most people were concerned. And of course there would be rumours and urban legends about strange phenomena flying around in this land of magic. Even if there were stories of 'otherworldly' objects, perhaps they were simply stories of things from Halkeginia, but seemed otherworldly for some reason.

_Maybe I should just give up and go back? This is a fool's errand. But it doesn't feel right if I don't do anything!_

"Honestly! What is with people nowadays – showing so much skin so brazenly? This is why our country is suffering so much," Kamijou turned in the direction of the voice that had said this. It was a man who looked somewhat like a priest.

"Um…what're you talking about, mister?" he asked.

"_I'm talking about young women who wear their skirts too high!_"

_Urghh. I ended up talking to some weirdo_.

"It's bad enough the nobles at the Academy do it, but now even the commoners are following suit! It's thanks to things like this that God is punishing us!"

"Eh? Punishment for showing some skin? Isn't that going a little too far?" Kamijou asked with an uncomfortable smile. Back in his world, _nuns _didn't seem to take their vows particularly seriously anyway. Priests could even chain-smoke and fall in love with those nuns, for crying out loud!

"Just you wait!" The man did not even listen. "Yesterday's storm was just the beginning! There'll be more to come!" Thankfully, the man decided to continue with his tirade elsewhere. Kamijou frowned at his attitude and moved on, wondering about the storm.

"Ah, but he's right…I'll never trust women again…" moaned another guy. Kamijou turned again. This time, it was a guy dressed like everybody else on the street. He had a somewhat mousy appearance, enhanced by his two front teeth.

"What happened to _you_?"

"Y'see – this girl walked into my shop yesterday! And she used that – that _devil's _charm of hers to cheat me out of a sword!" he started crying dramatically.

"You sell swords?"

"Yes, obviously!" he sniffed. "She made me sell a fine Germanian-forged sword at a third of the original price!...But she was a fine thing. Hehe he he."

Kamijou sweatdropped. It looked like he was running into plenty of weirdos today. But it was fine. If he couldn't start by talking to people, he didn't mind if people came to talk to him instead.

"What about that storm that other guy mentioned?"

"Storm?" he looked a little annoyed at the change of subject, but played along. "Yeah – there was a storm yesterday. It was odd. The skies were clear and all, but we clearly saw a flash of lightning,"

"Is that so? Well, it's probably just some noble, isn't it?" Kamijou asked sceptically.

"Sounds likely – but nobody saw any noble around," the sword seller shrugged. Kamijou was about to ask if maybe nobody recognised the noble for what he was – but that was naïve. Street rats were good at recognising people for what they were. A noble would be easily seen and identified by various markers like his or her clothes, manner and most obviously, their power. If nobody actually saw the Noble, it was almost like an urban legend.

Reflecting on those thoughts, he realised how much he had changed. It was true he was never really the kind of goody-two-shoes who stayed clear of fights, but thinking about things from the point of view of a street fighter was almost becoming second nature. Baggage City, Hawaii, Russia, England and so many other battlefields had pushed this mentality onto him.

_Is it really alright to carry on like this?_

He had been tricked in Hawaii. Somebody had used his personality to manipulate him into saving other people in Hawaii – but that had led to 27 institutions breaking their ties with Academy City and causing problems elsewhere. And then it had escalated into an incident which left a cold, desolate city in Eastern Europe going down in flames thanks to Academy City's cold-blooded retaliation. Kamijou was not so bold as to believe that he was at the centre of _everything_, but if he had read _just a little_ more deeply into what Birdway was thinking, maybe things would not have had to go down such a tragic path.

Now he wasn't even sure of what to fight for. Imagine Breaker was a tool that many sought, just like a certain living library of 103000 magical grimoires. How was he to know if a person wanted to borrow his power for the right reasons? Or if he could save a person without causing even bigger problems?

He sighed.

"_Kyah! A thief! Stop, thief!_" a woman's voice cried out. A person dashed right past Kamijou carrying a gold chain in a feminine-looking hand. Looking back at the direction from which he had run, Kamijou saw a woman waving her fist at him and trying to chase the thief. The mousy sword-seller rolled his eyes.

"Another thief, huh? This is why you shouldn't be wearing jewellery so obviously, idiot!"

"Somebody help! That's a very precious-"

Kamijou hesitated. His conversation-buddy saw this and said condescendingly, "Don't bother, hero. It'll just make you stand out more. And standing out is just the worst possible thing for us commoners!"

"Have you no shame, you on the horse?!" A man shouted out. For some reason, he was dressed in tights and a…was that a purple _sports bra_?! He had bulging muscles and well-maintained facial hair. "There's a woman in trouble! What're you doing?!"

_I shouldn't stand out…but there's someone in need._

_God dammit!_

"It's just a gold thread, isn't it? Fine, I'll get it!" He roared, and dug his heels gently into Ghost's side, urging him forward. The horse whinnied and started trotting forward at a fast pace. For all his angsty thoughts earlier, he couldn't just let something like this go, could he? He could come to terms with the Hawaii incident and settle his own thoughts later. For now, _just for now_, he would focus on this pointless little disturbance. He started galloping after the thief. Luckily, people cleared the path for him, wary of the horse, and so he could just keep moving without any difficulty. He took this opportunity to take a good look at the thief. It looked like a young man. He was dressed in rags and an old hat.

"Give it up! Just return what you've stolen and I'll let you go!"

"Eeek!" Apparently the thief himself was too terrified to listen to him. Adrenaline had already set in, and was forcing him to keep running. Kamijou felt a little bad running a man down like this, but stopping the horse or jumping off was dangerous.

Then, Kamijou saw something. Or more accurately, he _felt_ something, and _then_ got a visual confirmation.

_Was he dreaming?_

His eyes widened as he pondered this question. But this was no time to hesitate. The person he had seen was already holding up a hand, ready to strike. He gritted his teeth and made his decision. _He knew who it was he had to help._

The thief let out another shout of despair as the horse gained on him. But for some reason, the boy riding the grey horse did not shove him to the ground or even try to touch him or run him down. Instead, he overtook him to his right, then turned to his left, essentially putting the horse perpendicular to his line of sight. A loud _zap _sound issued from the direction to which s/he had been running. Ignoring it, the thief gasped for breath and turned around – the hat 'he' was wearing fell off, revealing a shock of messy black hair – it was a woman! But Kamijou did not even have the time to be surprised. The thief looked up and noticed something was off.

_Where was that boy looking?_

He was not focusing on the target of his chase – he was looking the other way. He was holding up his right hand, which was smoking lightly.

"Hey. You alright?" now _this_ was addressed to her, the thief he had been chasing.

"Hah?"

"I still stand by what I just said. Give that lady back her gold thread, and I'll let you off,"

"_I can't believe it…did that boy protect that thief?_" a woman asked her friend in an aside. The thief looked up in shock.

"_Hmph! Little rats like this are hardly worth risking anything for!_"

"_But even so, that was overkill...that noble girl just unleashed lightning at a simple common thief!_"

"_Well, I suppose that is only to be expected. Thanks to that Fouquet, going around making every noble around afraid of thieves_…"

Staring dumbly at the boy on the horse, the young thief asked dumbly, "Did you just…save me? Why?"

"Even if what you did was wrong, there's no need to hit you with this kind of attack. You're a thief, not a mass-murderer. Now, _go already_. Return that woman's jewellery to her and get away from here."

Kamijou finished addressing the thief, his head still turned away from her. He then spoke to the other person who had gotten herself involved in the incident.

"So…? Why is the Biribiri middle-school girl here?"

_To Be Continued_

Chapter 4 Preview

_Take this hand…and I'll make all your dreams come true._

_"Besides...another world. Does it not seem promising? Especially for us who've had to live a life like this,"_

_"But in the end, I'm physically closest to him, so I win, says Misaka 10032 with finality,"_

_"I'm coming to find you, Kami-yan...once I find a way off this goddamned flying barrel they call the bloody Eagle!"_

___"C'mere, brat. What's wrong?"_

_"I PRAY FOR YOUR SUCCESS, KAMIJOU TOUMA. MORE TANGIBLY, TEN X EXTRA DUTIES FOR YOU IF ANY INJURY BEFALLS THOSE STUDENTS OR THEIR FAMILIARS"_

_"Physical defects make animals dislike you? Overcome those, and true adventure beckons!"_

_"Room serv~ice...!"_


	4. Chapter 4

HOPES and FEARS

Chapter 4: Otherworldly Meeting. _Unusual_Gathering_

**Part 1**

Flowers were blooming. There were sparkles everywhere. Everything was a blur except for that person in front of her.

"M...My _p-prince_?" she questioned her own sanity. He rode up to her on a horse and stopped with the horse perpendicular to her line of sight. Almost like reaching out to a lover, he held out a hand.

_Take this hand…and I'll make all your dreams come true._

With wide eyes, a slightly flushed face, and shallow breathing, she extended her own hand. His hand kept going forward, and so did hers. They were so close, yet so far. But it had to be done slowly. Mikoto somehow knew she couldn't rush this. It was almost there…just a few centimetres. Or was it a few dozen millimetres?

She was so caught up in the moment that she didn't notice his hand extending past hers. It kept going, until it was just in front of her face.

A finger flew out and flicked her forehead hard.

"Eh?"

"Like. I. _said_. What're you spacing out for, Misaka?!"

The glossy look in her eyes disappeared so fast that Kamijou Touma wondered if he had broken an illusion when he touched her face. Veins started popping.

"Eh? …Did I do something wro-"

An incoherent sound escaped her lips. It seemed words couldn't even express what she was feeling at that moment. A spear of lightning flew out from her forehead, accompanied by a scream of rage straight from the bottom of a maiden's injured heart.

"Seriously, why're you so angry?" the boy protested. The girl walking in front of him just looked back and glared menacingly, bangs sparking.

"O-ok I get it! I get it! I'm sorry about flicking your forehead, so forgive me already Misaka-saaaaaaaaaaan!"

"Idiot! It's…it's not about…the f-f-forehead…" she looked down, her face turning red.

"Huh? Did you say something?"

"No, I didn't say anything! Shut up!" she turned her back to him and continued walking, to his chagrin.

A tense, yet comfortable, silence descended between the boy and girl as they walked down the crowded street with a horse following them. It felt like those nights they used to spend messing about all over Academy City, with one idiot chasing the other and demanding he fight her seriously. The atmosphere between them now was like what it was at the end of those long chases when they would be too tired to fight or run and would instead settle for trading barbs like quarrelling children.

Kamijou took the opportunity to scrutinise the level 5. She looked the same as always – short brown hair with a flower hairpin, wearing the Tokiwadai winter uniform with black socks. _Don't tell me that priest from earlier was talking about her when he was complaining about short skirts?!_ There was a Gekota strap hanging out of her pocket, probably attached to her phone. _Heh~ so she still had that_. She was also carrying a large, branded bag slung over her right shoulder.

"Why'd you stop me just then, anyway? I had a clear shot at that thief, or whatever,"

"Well, she was just a common thief! Ask yourself why you actually shot lightning at a helpless civilian!"

_Helpless civilian?_ Wasn't that what Kuroko had called the Meltdowner and her blonde friend at that family restaurant without knowing who they were? And on top of that, she was just a common thief? Would this guy help anyone as long as they had 2 X-chromosomes?!

"Haven't I told you before that I know how to handle the weak?" she snapped, feeling a disproportionate sense of irritation.

The boy cocked his head, unconvinced, but let it slide. "How'd you know where I was though?"

"I didn't. I didn't expect to find you so soon myself. It's just...luck, I guess. By the way..." she ran her eyes up and down his body briefly. "Well, physcially, you seem to be alright, but I'll ask anyway - d'you have any injuries or anything?"

"Surprisingly, no," Kamijou decided to keep quiet about his severed hand for the time being.

"How did you get here, though? Don't tell me you got sucked into a magical portal or something?"

"How'd you know?!"

"Lucky guess," she rolled her eyes. "And also because we came here by the same way. Well, never mind the details, we can exchange those later. For now, we'd better inform the rest about this."

"The rest?"

"Yeah. 8 people came looking for you, y'know! _You'd. Better. Be. Grateful!_" the girl accentuated each word with a poke to his chest.

"8?!"

"Mm-hm. I'm the only one here 'cause we split up. As for the rest, let's see...There's this red-haired guy in priest robes…that sis-con friend of yours with the blonde hair and sunglasses, and…"

"Oh. That's Stiyl and Tsuchimikado, huh?" Kamijou asked. A strange feeling blossomed in his chest when he heard that 8 people had come along – especially those two bastards from Necessarius who kept throwing him into various situations around the world. Truth be told, he hadn't completely thrown away the possibility that someone might come looking for him - it was the reason he wasn't _so_ surprised to see her here. "Then…who're the rest?"

"Ahh…you'll see soon!" Mikoto said with an uncomfortable laugh. _Best not to tell him about the girls…lest he get any…undesirable thoughts! Yes! I should protect those girls from this idiot and his patterns!_

As those delusions ran through her head, Kamijou scratched his head at her odd behaviour.

"Anyway…we've been walking for quite a while…are you familiar with this town, Misaka?"

Misaka stopped short. Now that he mentioned it…she had no idea where she was walking.

But of course, there was no way she was letting him know that. "O-Of course I know this place! I was assigned to check out this area, after all!" Truth be told, she had arrived very recently and hadn't exactly scouted the place thoroughly. She didn't even have any useful amount of money.

"Well, that's good, 'cause I've been here only, like, two times. Umm. Where're we meeting the rest?"

In response, Misaka didn't say anything, but instead reached into her bag and took out a small black case the size of a juice carton. She fiddled around with it for a while, attaching a black rod to its head. Once she was done, she pressed a button on its side and talked.

"Misaka…err, _Mikoto_ here, I have a message, over,"

There was no reply. Mikoto frowned and started walking again, holding the radio Receiver/Transmitter set in her hand in her hand.

"Mikoto here, I'm in the city of Tristania, capital of Tristain and I've found the idiot!["_I-Idiot?!_"]. Can anyone read me, over?"

"Umm. Misaka-san, are the rest ignoring you?"

"Shut up, idiot!" she shouted, her lightning flaring up. "Maybe they're just busy!"

About 15 minutes passed. Nobody bothered to reply.

"Looks like all of them are _super_ busy," mused Kamijou. Misaka glared at the RT. Then, she relaxed abruptly, coming to a sudden realisation.

_None of the rest was replying. _

_Everybody else was spread out over various locations in this small country. _

_It was just her and that boy in the middle of this town._

Her face turned red and she couldn't speak.

"Well, it's fine, isn't it? I mean, surely you guys made up plans for situations like this. Right, Misaka?"

_I-I-I have no p-plan for this!_ Poor Mikoto was not even on the same page as that boy.

She grabbed her head and yelled, "Ahhhh what does it even matter?! If they won't respond, we'll just have to wait it out!" she took a deep breath to calm herself, then continued, "We're all over the place so it'll take a while for everybody to find this city and get here. We might need a place to stay,"

"Huh? But I'm supposed to get back by tonight - hey, are you listening?!"

She just ignored him, however, and started walking off to find an inn. Yeah, staying overnight in hotels was normal to her! Nothing to be embarrassed about!

* * *

**Part 2**

"So?"

"It looks legitimate to me. I understand it's hard to believe, but that man has actually magically travelled to another world," The young, smartly-dressed man looked up from his tablet. "And our _beloved friend_ has followed in his footsteps. Along with the #3 Level 5, if my information is correct,"

"To another world? Ridiculous. How could he go to other worlds if even Academy City hasn't figured out if there are planets fit for human habitation out there? _Ohh, right. Magic_. Magic explains every fucking thing, doesn't it?"

"Heh. That, it does,"

"_And what for?_ Don't tell me he just got bored of good ol' Mother Earth and decided to go on holiday?" the first man spat.

"Don't ask me," his partner in conversation shrugged. "But it doesn't look like he went of his own will. At least, that's my guess since people are going to 'rescue' him,"

"_Che_. _Somebody_ thinks this is enough to get me to move,"

"Is _somebody_ wrong?" came the teasing reply.

"_Do you have a death wish, asshole?_"

The second man merely chuckled. "I said that only because this information - if it's true - is enough to get _me_ to move. I'm sure you understand why,"

"_Tch._"

"Besides...another world. Does it not seem promising? Especially for us who've had to live a life like this," #2's voice took on a rare emotional tone.

"We don't have to return. _I made fucking sure of that!_"

"You're right. I know about your actions after the war. I know what you did, and I'm grateful. But the darkness will always exist. You can go to the ends of the earth and still be chased by it. And this is because we both have something that means the world to us,"

The first man cursed softly.

"In any case, I'm going to follow this lead, even if you are not," #2 warned lightheartedly. "Now that _she_ is no longer on this world, there is nothing holding me back,"

"Do whatever you like," #1 spat.

"I do wish someone would follow me, though. If all goes well, I'll still have a partner to accompany me, but I'd be lying if I said I was completely fine leaving you behind. We _are_ a team, after all," the other man said lightheartedly.

"Don't give me that rubbish," his partner huffed. #2 simply chuckled.

"If you change your mind, I'll be at the Kamijou Household tomorrow midnight. Goodbye, for now,"

* * *

**Part 3**

The Charming Faeries Inn.

Mikoto's eyes couldn't stop twitching. She had thought this place was fine but it was _anything but_!

The owner was a raging homosexual, by the looks of it. His name was apparently Scarron, but when his girls addressed him as such, he demanded that they call him _mi mademoiselle_ instead. The second he saw Kamijou, he came over, twisting at his hips in a disgusting manner, and started hitting on the poor boy, calling him a hero because he helped out that woman who'd been robbed (_that bastard. That Goddamned heroic bastard_). And when Kamijou had uncomfortably pushed him away - _good. At least he didn't swing that way_ - he had just playfully ordered his girls to treat him well (_~Ye~s, Mi Mademoiselle!_). And speaking of the girls - Mikoto felt inadequate just looking at the least "developed" of them. She felt like grabbing him and running away that instant. But that idiot had already decided on his own to make do with that place.

"_Je voudrais deux chambres pour une nuit s'il vous plaît_," he intoned. Misaka gaped at him. The owner puckered his lips and asked coyly, "_Juste pour une nuit, monsieur?_"

"_Oui, juste une nuit._"

"You...you speak French?!" Mikoto stammered as they were led up to their rooms by a girl who worked at the inn, after he paid up-front for the rooms. The pronunciation had been a little off, and he seemed to be forcing back his natural accent, but his request for two rooms for one night was spoken well enough for the owner to understand. In reply, the owner had asked if he wanted the rooms just for one night, implicitly inviting him to stay longer, but he had turned it down.

"Nah...that's not really true. C'mon. I've had 10 days - not even an Academy City Student can learn an entire language in 10 days!" His statement was spot on. If Mikoto had observed his progress for the past 10 days, she would understand that it was not "French Proficiency" that he had developed - it was just knowledge of_ basic_ French words, phrases and grammar, supplemented with plenty of further vocab practice. The rest was just ad-libbing. Kamijou had, by this point, developed an uncanny ability to make intelligent guesses based on limited information and contextual knowledge. Which, of course, would lead one to ask why he was still so bad at reading the mood, not that Mikoto thought that far ahead.

_Two rooms for one night?_

She didn't know whether to feel glad or disappointed by this development. Well, real life wasn't like a shoujo manga, after all, for better or for worse. It wasn't like they were going to share rooms and do _stupid things_ like in those unrealistic sequences found in her maid Tsuchimikado's favourite manga. _It wasn't like she wanted to share rooms, Goddammit!_ Soon, they reached their rooms, which were side-by-side. Kamijou collected the keys with a word of thanks, and the girl left them.

"Y'know...we've been walking along like nothing's wrong all this while, but... come on. We're someplace far from home. _Really, really far_. I need to know what's going on. And I'm sure you're looking for some answers as well,"

_Damn right I am!_

With his back turned to her, he said some _really_ dangerous words.

"I'll be waiting in my room so come over whenever you're ready,"

He went inside before the blushing Mikoto could stammer anything. That…_idiot_! _Can't he read the situation? Can't he choose his words more carefully?!_

But it was too late to protest. Shoulders sagging, Mikoto walked into her room, wondering, not for the first time, if was even worth it to come all the way here for that boy. But whatever, he was absolutely right. In fact, she hadn't expected him to even understand that much, given his rubbish track record of caring about things like making sure he and his allies were on the same page (or even in more basic things like properly catching up with frien...acquain..._people he knew_!). She tossed her bag onto the bed with a sigh and looked around.

It was a simple room, with a bathroom and a wooden bed with a comfortable-looking mattress on it. There was a small table too, along with a night lamp.

_Hmm it's pretty Spartan…Guess I've been living in comfort for too long._

Of course, this is one of the _Ojou-samas_ from Tokiwadai Middle School we're talking about. She was the type to casually book into a hotel just to leave her belongings for a while and to change her attire. On the other hand, this room in a foreign – _really foreign!_ – inn…

"Well, not like I've got any right to complain," she spoke internally. It wasn't like she had signed up for this mission – sneaked onto the team, in fact – so she could live in comfort everyday.

And all this was for the sake of catching up to that boy and waking him up from the illusion that he had to do everything on his own. That idiot had hidden many things from her before – how many times had that _dangerous_ habit of his made her clench her fist in anger and despair? In time, she had to find out everything about the hidden world he had been a part of for a long time, from the time he fought Accelerator...or more likely, even before that. It felt like that one episode with Accelerator was just one in a long series of incidents he happened to be in the middle of. Thinking about that made her feel a little lonely. But she shook her head and violently punched the air a few times.

_No no no! I can't think like that. I came this far so I could lecture that guy on all the stupid things he's done so far! I can't be stopped by something as simple as this! I'll make sure to get all the information I can out of him later!_

Making up her mind, she went to take a shower, and changed into more comfortable clothes. The Tokiwadai uniform was a piece of cutting edge design and she felt comfortable wearing it anywhere, but now that she was so far away from the school and the Dorm Mistress (_especially the Dorm Mistress_), she felt like wearing something else. What middle-schooler wanted to be stuck with her school uniform forever, anyway? She reached into her bag and drew some fresh clothing – a simple black T-shirt and yellow shorts. Getting herself ready, she took a deep breath and knocked on his door.

* * *

**Between The Lines 1**

"I've always wanted to go to Germany, says Misaka 19090 as she enjoys pork knuckles in a local café,"

"Oh, but England is much better, says Misaka 10039 as she sips the kind of red tea Academy City _Ojou-samas_ can only _dream_ about,"

"Please. The coffee from Italy is so much more exquisite, says Misaka 10777 as she adds fuel to the fire!"

"But in the end, I'm physically closest to _him_, so I win, says Misaka 10032 with finality,"

"G-guh,"

"Why is it I always get the short end of the straw? Wonders Misaka 10777, hoping another big chance will happen like in the War,"

"And besides, those names are hardly appropriate, says Misaka 10032, changing the subject to more serious matters,"

"In the days since we arrived, Misaka 19090 has been using her helpless little girl ability to hitchhike across borders, ending up in Germany, reports Misaka as she wonders why they call it Germania here,"

"This Misaka seems to have wandered into a religious country seemingly named for the City of Rome, says Misaka 10777 as she wonders if she can ask the local Pope for blessings and a fruitful love life,"

"Get those ridiculous unscientific thoughts out of your head or you'll corrupt the whole network~ says Misaka as Misaka tries checking in on her beloved Sisters!"

"U-ugh. Someone undesirable has appeared, says Misaka as she remembers the still-open Gate and the numerous Broadcast Relay Stations transmitting information back to Midgard,"

"Geez, what's with that reaction! Asks Misaka as Misaka tries using her little brat ability to change your opinions about her! Anyway, what's this about Midgard? Has everyone been watching that movie about Viking Gods starring that blonde Australian, asks Misaka as Misaka tries to implicitly mock your taste in-"

"Moving on, this Misaka is in a place called Gallia, close to the border with Tristain, reports Misaka as she ignores the Command Tower,"

"This Misaka came to Albion with Motoharu-_oniichan_ but we got separated later, reports Misaka as she wonders if she made the wrong decision coming here."

"Gyahh! How could everyone leave me behind in Academy City while having their own adventure in some MMORPG-sounding land! Shouts Misaka as Misaka tries making a mental note to get _that person_ to bring her over! Hey hey hey where is everyone? asks Misaka as Misaka plots and plans her journey!"

"_Never_ tell her where we are, says Misaka as she appeals to the other Misakas to put on a united front!"

"I agree, says Misaka as she agrees."

"Ditto, says Misaka as she agrees."

"Roger, says Misaka as she agrees."

"Waaaahhhh! _how could you all treat your leader like this?!_ Says Misaka as Misaka-"

_Beeeeee-eeeeeeeep._

* * *

**Part 4**

A certain nervous girl knocked on the door to a boy's room at the inn they were staying at.

"It's open," he called out.

"I-I'm coming in," she said, staring at a girl who had just walked past the door wearing what looked like bondage gear._ Just what kind of inn was this anyway?! _

His room was exactly the same as hers, and he too seemed to have taken a shower, going by his wet hair. Mikoto closed the door behind her and stepped inside quite stiffly, taking the chair across the table from him.

"So…"

"So…"she mimicked him blankly, not knowing what to say. All the bravado built up just a minute ago was gone.

"Maybe we should exchange information first," he proposed. "First of all, how'd you get here? I don't even know how I was brought out here. If you tell me the method you used to make your way to this world, that'd be enlightening,"

"This thing called Bifröst," she said. As usual, the conversation was proceeding at his pace. It simultaneously irritated her and put her at ease. "It's a Norse Mythology thing, a rainbow bridge that connects different worlds, something like a space elevator. I didn't believe in it myself until I saw it first-hand. There's this massive tree called Yggdrasil that supports nine worlds on its branches. Earth, or Midgard as the Vikings used to call it, is one of those worlds,"

Kamijou wondered who had even opened the gate, but assumed it had been one of the 8 who had arrived on this world looking for him.

_Uwahh...8 people came all the way out here..._

"Hey. What're you smiling to yourself for? That's really creepy, so could you _cut it out_?!" Her hand reached out and flicked him on his forehead.

"Oww!... Is that revenge for just then...?"

"Of course not!" She responded in an overly sweet voice.

"Liar! But anyway...So Earth is Midgard, huh? Funny how nobody calls it that back on Earth,"

"What's even more funny is how we're so naturally adjusting to having two worlds to live on," she frowned. "And what's more, there are 7 others," she listed the other seven for his knowledge.

"Eh? Where's Halkeginia?" he noted that this name was absent from the list of seven she had just given him.

"Alfheim is the name the Vikings gave to this world - according to those magicians' guess, anyway - although everyone here calls it Halkeginia. So let's just go with Halkeginia, shall we?," she said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "But having said that, I don't know too much about this world. It hasn't been too long since I got here,"

"Hm? I thought you said you knew all about it?" she smiled nervously at having been found out, but thankfully, that boy didn't seem to take notice, simply moving on. "It's a world of magic. There is a social hierarchy with commoners and nobles - the nobles are those who can use magic, and they are born with their abilities, while the commoners are those without magical abilities,"

"Huh. Sounds a little like Europemany centuries ago. Except without magic,"

"Or maybe with magic," Kamijou disagreed. "There's magic on our world too, remember?"

"Ah, right. It's so easy to forget. Or maybe it's better to say you're not normal since this is so natural to you," she sniped. He snorted,"Says the Level 5 esper with 10000 sisters!" "Hey. Don't bring them into this,"

Mikoto sipped some water from the sports bottle she had brought into his room and continued, "So anyway, this guy - everyone kept calling him a failure, not sure why - he opened some kind of magic portal and we went into it to get on the rainbow bridge, Bifröst. From there, we travelled along the Bridge, and visited each world. This is the third world we've come across. I guess that's pretty good considering we could potentially have failed 8 times before finding you on the last world," _Or not finding you on any of them_, she thought to herself, grimly satisfied that this worst case scenario had not occurred.

"What were the first two?" He asked with a curious tilt of the head.

"Muspelheim and Jotunheim. The first was a world of fire. We almost landed in a pit of lava. Luckily, we didn't need to stick around looking for you. We had some equipment we used to figure out whether or not you were around on that world. Once we figured out you weren't around, we closed shop and left."

She paused for a drink,"Next was Jotunheim. It was the exact opposite of Muspelheim - a cold this uniform is designed to ward off even extreme cold! Oh, we did get attacked by some frost giants but they were nothing,"

Puffing out her chest with pride, the cocky railgun smiled,"Crossing worlds and fighting monsters of fire and ice? All in a day's work for this Mikoto-sama!"

Her cheeky statement was met with silence. He was looking down, somewhat, and his eyes seemed clouded over.

_Hey. Hey. You're supposed to praise how reliable I am in situations like these! What's with the awkward silence? C-crap, maybe I shouldn't have brought up something that'll make him feel unnecessarily guilty..._

She bit her lip nervously and looked away, wondering if there was anything she could say to alleviate the suddenly-heavy mood. However, when she looked back, his expression was suddenly back to normal, startling her.

"Saying things like that, just how arrogant can this girl get?" he mused, scratching the back of his head. A vein popped out in the girl's forehead and some lightning crackled. He yelped and cowered, but Mikoto smiled and stopped her attack. She didn't have the nerve to tell him something so embarrassing, but she'd held back because she was relieved that he was back to normal.

"And then, a few days ago, we came to this world - at the edge of this huge lake. We got a positive reaction from our equipment - meaning you were around on this world - so we split up and started looking for you. A~nd here we are," Mentally doing the calculations in her head, she realised that, as he had mentioned earlier, it had been roughly 10 days since he'd come to this world. She, on the other hand, had left Academy City around 7 days earlier.

"So that's it for me!" She said brightly. "Now it's your turn to let Mikoto-sensei hear what you've been up to!" She gave the same cocky smile as before, determined not to let the mood turn sour again (which was also the reason her story lacked so many lurid details). Returning the smile, Kamijou told her what had happened since he had arrived at the Tristain Academy. He neglected to mention the events leading up to it, though.

"So you get thrown into a different world, and _this_ is how you react? You met me after so long but just behaved as if we're still in District 7 back home. And now you tell me you actually took up a job here," she wrinkled her nose judgmentally. "You sure are taking it easy, aren't you?"

"Hey. I had to do it! And it wasn't just a job - my boss was also my French teacher. Besides, I too have been looking for a way to get back-"

Suddenly, a crackling sound cut him off. The boy grew scared, thinking the girl was mad at him again, but realised that was not the case when Mikoto jumped too, startled, and took something out of her pocket. It was the team radio she had been given before setting off on the mission.

"Stiyl Magnus to all _zzt_stations_zzz_. Can anyone _bzzt_hear_zzz_ me over?"

"Stiyl?!"

"Yes, it's that priest!" Mikoto pressed the Push-To-Talk button and spoke, "Mikoto here! I've found him! I repeat, I've found him, and we are currently at the city Tristania, capital of Tristain, over!"

"So Onee-sama is the winner, over, says Misaka as she silently fades into the background," came another voice over the radio. This one was very clear compared to Stiyl's voice, making Kamijou wonder if it was an effect of their electromaster powers. "But I hope _he _can hear this over, says Misaka #10777 as she gives you her serial number for identification,"

Mikoto had looked a little annoyed when the message from her 10777th sister had come through, but before she could voice her thoughts, another message came through.

"WHAT?! THAT_ ZZZT_LITTLE_BZZT_ GIRL MADE IT _BZZT_BEFORE_ZZZZ_ ME?!"

"Who's a little girl?!" Snapped Mikoto, but she had forgotten to press the PTT button so she was just yelling at thin air. Kamijou paled. Mikoto glared at his expression of recognition, and then sighed. "My papa spent his entire adult life building up his network from scratch...and here you are with your own ridiculously extensive network with Level 5s, magicians and even the freaking Queen of England! How is that even possible for an ordinary Level 0?"

Without answering, he kept silent, staring intensely at the radio, which crackled to life again.

"That's the first _zzt_good_bzz_ news I've heard in quite a while nyaa~. But we've got another _zzt_problem_bzzt_ now..."

"Which is that it'll take time for everyone to gather in one location over, muses Misaka 10032 as she longingly twirls the necklace given to her by-" thankfully for Mikoto's heart, the last of that message seemed to have been cut off by the radio.

"This is all your _zzt_fault_tssh_ Tsuchimikado," grumbled Stiyl, ditching the proper radio voice procedure after seeing that nobody else was really following it. "If you hadn't gone_ bsssht_someplace_zzz_ so far out, we could've just grabbed that _bzz_bastard_zzzt_ and gone home in time for dinner!"

"Don't sweat the _bzzt_small_shht_ stuff nyaa~" the easygoing voice of the annoying spy came in. "Just _bssht_share_ksst_ your location and we'll soon find each other~"

"Well, fine," Stiyl spoke. "Misaka _zzt_Mikoto_bzzt_, you're in Tristania, aren't you? I'm close by. Let's meet up tomorrow _tssh_evening_zsshht_ in town. From there we can find the other _kssht_idiots_bzz_. Hopefully they haven't gone too deep into the neighboring _bzzt_countries_tssht_."

"Alright. I understand," without thinking about it, Mikoto quipped, "By the way, we're staying at this inn called the Charming Faeries. Let's meet there,"

One could almost hear something snap inside the other 5 girls.

"Hoh~ how bold of Onee-sama, over, says Misaka #10032 as she hopes you brought suitable prophylactic materials," came a slightly shaky voice from the Sisters' unofficial leader.

Mikoto's face turned red and she struggled to stutter out a response.

"GYAAAHHHHH I _BZZT_CAN'T_BSSHT_ STAND THE THOUGHT OF THAT _CRRSSZZT_ GETTING IT ON WITH THAT-" the radio cut off again.

Mikoto's ears looked like they might start steaming anytime soon.

"Don't _bzzt_break_kssht_ any laws, Kami-yan! Even if you're on a different _tssht_world_kzzt_, be 100% sure before you try anything nyaa~!"

Lightning started issuing from Mikoto's forehead.

"Just...what...kind of person...D'YOU GUYS THINK I AM?!" Mikoto screamed into the radio, slamming her fists on the table.

"Umm. Misaka."

"WHAT?!" she yelled at him. He flinched, "You're not pressing the talk button…"

Mikoto honestly felt like frying him, the radio, and the whole goddamn room that instant. But she forced herself to calm down. Taking a deep breath, she told herself repeatedly that she had come to this world to rescue him. The frying part could come later after they were safely back home. She stuck her nose up in the air and switched off the radio Receiver/Transmitter handset. After ensuring that the RT was properly turned off and the volume was set to 0 just for good measure, she got up and stretched.

"Well, you heard that. We meet that priest tomorrow. Get some rest. We'll stay in town and look around for him tomorrow evening,"

Kamijou had been staring at the spot where the RT had been placed on the table by Mikoto, but jerked up at her words.

"Uhh, yeah. Sure. G'night Misaka." She stared weirdly at his dazed expression before returning the greeting and stepping outside.

"Misaka!" He suddenly called out to her. She froze in place, just about to close the door behind her. He leaned forward in his seat, looking as though he was gathering his thoughts. Mikoto's back was turned, but she waited for him to speak.

"Umm. I really appreciate your coming here and all, but...I think -"

"That we shouldn't have come?" She asked.

"Err, well-"

"That we should've just left it to the experts?"

"That's -"

"That I, that nun, your classmates, teachers, parents and everybody else should've just stood by idly and waited for you to magically show up at that hospital with that frog-faced doctor?"

"Misaka."

She calmed down, shoulders sagging with a sigh, upon hearing the tone in his voice.

"I won't fault you for feeling that way. I know I have no right to lecture you on this," Memories of running all over Academy City to trash Project Radio Noise-related facilities without a single word to Kuroko, Saten-san or Uiharu-san flashed through her head. But she clenched her fist and spoke on, "But what makes you think you're the only one entitled to running off to fight your battles while leaving everyone behind worrying for you and wondering what the hell you're up to?" She took a deep breath and said the words she'd meant to tell him ever since she saw him leaving that hospital "You should trust in us too! We've got your bac- _Hey! What're you doing here?!_"

"Room serv~ice...!"

A well-endowed girl who looked a few years older than Kamijou was about to enter the room. "Good evening _Monsieur et Mademoiselle!_" She said in French. "Seeing as it is almost time for bed, could I interest you in a night~cap?" Kamijou blushed as he looked at the _onee-san_ in the plain clothes and started stammering as he replied negatively. Mikoto blushed too, looking at the older girl, and found that her voice had turned somewhat _small_ when she too said no. The girl had feigned a look of disappointment before walking away, hips swaying behind her.

"Sorry Misaka - you were saying...?"

Mikoto opened her mouth to say something, but the words couldn't come out. The moment had passed. She hung her head in defeat and turned away. "It's nothing...idiot."

"Huh? That's pretty cruel..." He whined. "Good night, Misaka."

Mikoto turned her nose up haughtily to cover up her melancholy. "Good night, _iiiiiiiidiot_,"

* * *

**Between The Lines 2**

A young man with blonde hair, dressed in the clothes of a old-timey sailor, leaned on the side of a ship, sporting a rare look of melancholy. "Rare", because he was usually seen smiling without a care in the world. He folded his long arms and sighed. There had been disturbing reports. The lines between Science and Magic continued to become blurred and distorted, and once again, his unfortunate friend had been caught right in the middle of it. As if the tumult of a world war was not enough, he had gone straight into further conflict and struggled in the battlefields that had been Hawaii and Baggage City.

He was already filled with regret, doubt and self-loathing after the disastrous incidents in which this friend of his had been caught up in - because all those events had, in his eyes, partially been his fault. He laughed bitterly as he recalled how he had let that boy be dragged into so many matters beyond his understanding thanks to the "orders" he had received from his superiors. And how he had stupidly blundered into setting the stage for even bigger incidents that even involved the whole world.

But even so, that boy…

His friend…

That _man _did not care about such things. With nothing more than the clothes on his back, his poor English, and that _tiny_ pinch of bravery…

He waded straight into the storm that threatened to engulf the whole world and set things straight. All the wrongs committed by so many powerful, _powerful _individuals - all set straight by him and those who threw themselves at the problem in the same vein, often thanks to his inspiration.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu raised his head.

He'd had enough of being the bastard who smiled slyly and pulled Kamijou Touma into disturbances around the world. Now it was his turn to extend a helping hand towards his beleaguered friend and pull him out of the mess he had found himself in.

"Hey, you! _Hartwell Micah_!" a rough voice called out. "Capt wants the deck swabbed in an hour's time!"

"Hartwell" sweatdropped as the man who'd called out to him threw a scrub at his head. He had lied his way on board a ship headed for another country, thinking of looking for his friend there, but then another 'comrade' of his had called in, saying she'd found that boy in the country he'd just set sail from.

_I'm coming to find you, Kami-yan...once I find a way off this goddamned flying barrel they call the bloody _Eagle_!_

* * *

**Part 5**

Kamijou barely slept that night. He had subconsciously felt happy that Mikoto, Stiyl, Tsuchimikado, Lessar and the Sisters had come looking for him, but thinking about the whole thing in-depth only depressed him.

He _had_ been prepared for the possibility of people coming after him - after all, recent events had simply served to remind him forcefully, once again, that his ability of Imagine Breaker was highly sought after - and not always for good purposes. That last part was especially true after the recent debacles at Hawaii and Baggage City. He had trusted people like Leivinia Birdway and Kihara Kagun, to his detriment.

_Well, that's not really true - I was able to make a difference by following them...but what happened after that? I was just _used_ to create a bigger incident that played right into their hands. _

_I don't wanna believe _they _came here to use me - not Tsuchimikado, not Stiyl, not Misaka or her sisters, not Lessar. But what about those who sent them? _

Kamijou Touma gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

_I messed up in Baggage City. If I hadn't come here, this wouldn't have had to happen. I could've just gone back home and everything would've been fine. But I _just_ had to be taken here. Misaka, her sisters and the rest _just_ had to be involved._

_They shouldn't have come here,_ he thought bitterly.

A knock sounded, and Misaka called out to him from the other side. Kamijou shook his head and rubbed his face to set his expression straight, and walked out to meet her. She had changed her clothes again, wearing khaki jeans with a teal blouse, carrying a dark blue jacket on her arm. _Is she intending to go out to town later? No doubt I'll be dragged around just like last time...Stupid luck..._

She had not told him yet, but Stiyl had contacted her once again some time earlier. His report was short and terse, and detailed his location.

"I just set out on _bzzt_horseback_tsssht_. According to the map I received, I should be reaching this _kssht_Academy_ssst_ of magic in two hours' time...then from there, a few more hours to the _zsst_capitalcity_tssst_," Mikoto recorded this information when she received the comms in her own room, and then left for breakfast. She met Kamijou outside his room and raised an eyebrow at his tired appearance, but didn't comment on it.

_Looks like he _too_ barely got any sleep last night…_

_Wait a minute._

_If we _both_ go down like this...with bags below our eyes…_

Her face turned red.

"Misaka...everything alright?" he asked. _Not. helping!_

"G-g-give me a minute!" she managed, and rushed back to her room after pushing her jacket onto him.

"It's so early and she's already being so Misaka-y...Such misfortune," he muttered, leaning against the wall.

15 minutes later, she stepped outside again with a falsely cheery appearance. Her face was practically glowing, and all evidences of sleeplessness was gone.

"Gooo~d mo~rning!" she brightly greeted him.

"Eh? Ehh? What's with that change?" Kamijou started panicking.

"What change?" she asked in that same sickly sweet bright tone, retrieving her jacket.

"N-nothing!" _That's definitely suspicious!_ He kept this to himself and walked with her down the stairs to the dining area. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, a girl came up to greet them.

"_Bonjour, Monsieur et Mademoiselle!_"

"Ahh - you're the...lady from yesterday," Kamijou blushed as he muttered. Mikoto just glared at her chest, unable to make eye contact.

"Come and take a seat! We've got a wonder~ful breakfast waiting!" she said warmly. "Oh - Monsieur - you gave your name as _Kamijou_, right?"

"Y-yeah, I did,"

"An raven brought in a letter for you this morning," she said, holding up a cheap, but well-polished plate that had clearly not been made for serving food on. It held a scarlet envelope. Kamijou took it with scrunched eyebrows. Mikoto peered at it and read out the name on the envelope.

_Marc Bonhomme._

"Erk! T-this guy…"

"What?" Mikoto asked, alarmed. "Who is it?"

"My...my boss, you could say," came the dejected reply. "I had to be back in the office by yesterday...now he's gonna kill me once I get back! What luck!" he cried, holding his head in his hands. The lady who'd handed him the letter read the mood expertly, despite his using Japanese, and said coyly, "Oh, you could always stay here for longer, monsieur~", leaning forward. Kamijou blushed again, and Mikoto glared at the two of them.

Before she could say anything, though-

"The store seems to be flourishing, huh, manager?"

"M-Monsieur...as you can see - we're full today-" The inn's owner, Scarron was sweating bullets, trying to talk to a fat man in fine clothes. Surrounding him were other men, all of whom were tall and wore rich clothes. All of them displayed wands or fine rapiers on their attire. Mikoto looked at him, sizing him up. Going by his 'prosperous' appearance, his clothes that had a liberal amount of gold thread, and the way he threw his weight around...was this one of the country's nobles? Kamijou too was looking at him cautiously. _D-damn. This doesn't look promising!_

The nobleman spoke to Scarron in a menacing tone. The men around him suddenly held up their wands and all the other customers got up and left. Mikoto narrowed her eyes. What was this guy doing? Scarron was putting on a brave front, but he was barely hanging in there, and his girls were shaking openly.

The noble and his attendants took up the seats at the biggest table and started chatting in a rather _intimidating_ manner about various topics. Kamijou and Mikoto both heard words like _taxes_, _her majesty_ and others being thrown out. None of the inn staff dared to approach them.

"Is there not a girl who will serve breakfast for Her Majesty the Queen's tax collector?! This store at least sells that, right?!" the fat man shouted boorishly. Nobody moved.

"_Who'd come up to serve disgusting pigs like you with a smile?_" one of the girls said in a small voice. Mikoto looked at her, being one of the few to hear her. Thankfully, none of the noblemen had heard it. The girl who had handed Kamijou his letter sighed and straightened up before stepping forward

"Ahh - Miss Jessica!" the others whispered. One of the girls said in a dramatic tone, "A-As expected of Mons- Mademoiselle Scarron's daughter! How brave!"

_So she was that _effeminate_ man's daughter?!_ Mikoto watched on, wondering what was to happen next.

And it was disgusting. That woman Jessica was pretty skilled at handling the coarse-mannered customers and their advances (well, it was actually just the one man who led them).

"Come on, Jessica - I'm a regular here, aren't I?" he purred. Jessica put on a sweet smile, much to the sad admiration of her colleagues.

"Of course, Master Chulenne," she said.

"Surely that means I can have you...You do realise your old man's shop may be put in a pretty precarious position based on your answer, don't you~?"

Mikoto glared at the proceedings. She was forcibly reminded of the #5 Level 5 and the dirty tricks she'd pulled in front of her before.

"Oh, stop playing around, Master Chulenne~" she said in a forced playful tone.

Kamijou looked beside him and jumped at the sight of the biribiri girl next to him. _S-such misfortune!_

"Oh, I'm not playing around, Jessica, my sweet." he said in a silky tone. "I plan to stay the night...if I don't see you tonight, well, I don't think I need to explain further, do I?"

"O-of course n-not, Master Chulenne," Jessica said, her smile slipping. _He'd won._ The nobles around Chulenne cackled lecherously, and others even praised the man for his 'catch'. Jessica's lovely face turned red with anger and humiliation. Scarron's shoulders were shaking. Of course it would be too much for any father to bear. But before he could take action, a buzzing sound started to issue from one of the corners of the inn.

* * *

**Part 6**

Accelerator lay on his bed. Sleep did not come easily.

_What the hell should I do?_

Everyone else had easy answers, it seemed.

_What's the point if I go anyway? I'm useless without my powers. _He felt the electrode on his neck. _How the hell is this gonna work if I leave this planet?_

_What about those two idiots? Going off somewhere is just gonna be the same as daring the whole world to come and take them away. Hawaii was bad enough, but...another fucking world?_

Besides, that guy could take care of himself, couldn't he?

"**Hey, Accelerator /return. This is about to get troublesome, so let me interfere /return."**

"Ahn?" he looked to his side and saw Last Order standing in front of the door. _When the hell did she come in? And...what's with that expression? _A visceral fear started rising in his throat. He forced it down and sat upright. Last Order stepped forward as he turned on the lamp.

"C'mere, brat. What's wrong?" She ignored his extended hand and remained standing there.

"**Normally, 'Misaka' fills the network but leaves the means of external interference to the individual units /return. So don't expect me to be much of a conversationalist /return. Think of this as being like an email /return. Just so you know, I will simply finish what I am saying even if you ask questions /return."**

"What..._the hell?_"

This was something from within the Misaka Network.

This was something superior even to Last Order who was the command tower.

But no one should have been higher than Last Order on the system!

He began to suspect this was related to the Third Season project Misaka Worst had come from, but then a different possibility came to him. Despite being warned she would give no response, he spoke through clenched teeth. "Are you the will of the entire Misaka Network!?"

Instead of replying directly, Last Order continued to speak in the same mechanical voice, **"What a dilemma you're in right now /return. Really /return. What a fix /escape. You just got some information that only a privileged few have actually seen, but /backspace while everyone else has already made up their minds, you're still sitting around wondering what to do /escape. Truly /return. You've got one foot in this world and the other in another world /return."**

"What the hell are you-"

"**You reacted to that with something along the lines of 'What the hell are you saying?', didn't you /escape? Don't do that /backspace. Let's get rid of all the problems that aren't actually needed, Accelerator /return. Hiding your embarrassment like that is usually quite cute, but /backspace it just gets in the way here /return. So, let me get down to the core of the issue /return. I know what you are probably thinking /return. If I go along to find that guy /escape, I will essentially be leaving behind Last Order and Misaka WORST /backspace. Besides, that guy can take care of himself, right /return?"**

Accelerator grimaced. How had she…?

"**Well, your concerns are not unfounded /return, but do you really think things will be ok if you stay here /escape? After all, a path to a new world has been opened /backspace, and in an unexpectedly simple manner /return. Does the term 'gold rush' come to mind /escape? At some point, this city may try and expand into the new world /return. Who knows, there may already be some plans in place /escape. Don't think that you, or Last Order or WORST, will be spared from what will come then /escape. I'm not lending you calculation space so you can sit around waiting for things to happen /return,"**

"Then what'd you want me to-"

"**Go now /return. Preempt /return. If you're worried about your electrode /backspace...well, **_**those**_** fears are unfounded /return. I can attest to that /return." **She tossed something to him. He did not react, letting it fall on the bed next to him; he was completely captivated.

_Is this the will of the network then? Is this what _those children_ are asking of me?_

"**Truth be told /backspace, this was not part of my plan at all /return. I didn't want you to have to go back to that world of violence /escape. Things can't possibly go that easily for the #1 monster, after all /return. But I'm afraid I'll have to make an exception here /return. Kamijou-chan may be in trouble, and you have to go to his side /return,"**

The white-haired monster clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

* * *

**Part 7**

A mysterious buzzing sound filled the inn. Even as Jessica tried to muster up whatever dignity she had left, she found herself frowning in curiosity at the noise. But, without warning, the sound just cut off into silence. Her eyes narrowed, then widened as she felt a person lean on her from her left side and put an arm around her shoulder.

"Yahh...I'm so sorry, Mister! I forgot I'd promised Jessica here that I'd take her around town the whole day! I even got permission from her dad, so…" Jessica gasped at these words, spoken in some pretty terrible Tristanian with some foreign accent.

_It was that boy._

She had known there was something off about him and his date, so she had listened at their door the previous night. They had not even been sleeping with one another, just talking - in some foreign language, to her disappointment. Of course, that thing about the nightcap was just an excuse she made up when the girl saw her at the door - why would an inn that generally catered to lovers offer nightcaps to customers who'd be busy doing the most private things in their rooms?

But what was this? Her guess was that he and his lover were a pair of foreigners who had come to the inn for the privacy to discuss some matters that could not be leaked. So why the hell was he doing something so eye-catching? And in front of _this kind of scum?!_

She gulped and tried to salvage the situation. "Don't play around, sir! If you bow down and apologise for your actions now, he may still let you off with a pardon!" she hissed to the boy with spiky black hair. Looking at him closely, he clearly was very nervous. His forehead and palms were sweaty, and his smile was overly enthusiastic and twitching slightly.

The other nobles seated around Lord Chulenne laughed at this sight.

"Hoho! What a hero!" one cackled. Chulenne growled at him in a low voice. "Boy...it seems you do not understand the situation here…"

Kamijou pressed Jessica's shoulder slightly and pulled her away.

"Come on, Jessica! Where should I take you first, I wonder?" he said this in an overly loud tone. Everyone stared at him in cold confusion. Who was he even trying to fool?

"You sure have guts, boy." Lord Chulenne growled, putting down his fork and starting to get up. One of his attendants stood up before him, however, and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword-wand. It was a tall, strapping man who wore a black cape and had a well-waxed moustache.

"My Lord Chulenne - there is no need for you to dirty your hands with lowlifes such as these. Allow me, Robespierre of her Majesty's Military Police Force, to teach this common boy a well a deserved lesson in manners!"

The boy sighed. He said something in his native tongue - something that sounded like 'fukoh-da". Jessica didn't get it, but smiled in a defeated manner. It wasn't like a commoner without a plan could hope to defeat a military trained noble, never mind a whole group of nobles. The gesture made her happy, but it was useless, in the end.

"I am Lord Robespierre of the Silver Stream, boy! If you surrender now and beg for forgiveness from Lord Chulenne, her Majesty's royal Tax Collector, I will be kind enough to let you off with a verbal warning,"

The black-haired boy he was addressing simply looked to his side, at the crowd that was staring at him, primarily made of the Inn workers and the guests who had come downstairs slowly, cautiously upon hearing the commotion. He turned back, his head hung and sighed. He muttered something else under his breath, then lifted his head with a deep breath.

"I only wish it could end that easily. Now you've gone and done it," He faced Chulenne directly. "I guess you're just really in misfortune today,"

"Is that a threat, boy?!" Robespierre bellowed. "You must be a foreigner. Clearly, you don't understand how things work in Tristain. Let me hammer into your body the knowledge of _our power! The power of the honorable Tristanian Aristocracy!_"

He drew his sword sharply and waved it in a meaningful manner while chanting incantations that were lost on Kamijou. As the tip of his wand traced arcane symbols in the air, water started gathering from the air in front of him. Kamijou realized he was condensing the water vapor in the air to make liquid water. Rapidly, the water took the form of a cylinder about half a meter in diameter and a meter in length, with the circular part facing Kamijou. With another wave of his wand, the cylinder froze solid.

"Eat this! _Silver Hammer!_"

The cylinder of ice flew straight at Kamijou. Several of the girls working at the inn screamed, and Scarron moaned despondently.

_["S...Such a man, to stand up for my one and only daughter...But it's all over now! There is no way a commoner can beat a nobleman!"]_

Kamijou exhaled deeply. "Such misfortune, so early in the morning. Stay back a bit, Miss," he gently pushed Jessica away towards his right, where Scarron and his girls stood.

Just in time, the massive block of ice had closed the gap on him. Jessica squeezed her eyes shut. Everyone collectively held their breaths, waiting for the inevitable dull thud and scream of pain. Instead...

The sound of glass shattering filled the dining area. The ice immediately returned to its original state in a shower of shimmering ice dust.

"G-gnn?! How?!" The noble grunted in shock.

"Sorry, noble," Kamijou said heavily, scratching the back of his head, eyes closed. "But I guess I'm one of the worst enemies you could've met."

_Bzzzzzzt._

His eyes opened in mild annoyance. "But not _the_ worst,"

Right on cue, a bolt of bright blue energy issued from within the crowd of bystanders and hit the noble's sword, like lightning being absorbed by a building's lightning rod.

"HaaaaaAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHH!" Robespierre screamed as his body convulsed. His moustache and hair caught fire and he fell over, struggling to put it out by swatting it with his hands. It had happened so fast that even Scarron and his girls could barely register that the attack had come from one of those standing in their midst. A girl, wearing what all the commoners regarded as "men's clothing", stepped forward, holding out her jacket to one of Scarron's girls.

"That'd be me," she said highhandedly, flicking her fringe slightly. By this time, all the noblemen save for Chulenne himself had stood up and were pointing their sword-wands at the young duo with the outlandish fashion sense. Sweating and shaking with rage, Chulenne also got up and pointed a shaking finger at the two.

"They dared...to lift a hand against one of Brimir's chosen…" his face turned purple. "_Kill them!_"

"This is getting annoying. I'll just finish them as soon as I can," she turned to Kamijou and quipped lightly. "_Cover me!_"

The boy didn't need to be told twice. Knowing the scale and flexibility of her powers, he acted accordingly, moving so that he could assist her efficiently. He was used to fighting solo, but it was not like Kamijou Touma could not match-up his movements with a partner. As magical attacks started coming from the noblemen, Mikoto started her preparations and Kamijou protected her by cancelling the attacks with his right hand. Thankfully, these noblemen had no experience with Imagine Breaker. Indeed, they had not encountered anything that could possibly cancel out their powers completely before, and their only solution to the problem was to send increasingly-powerful attack spells at Kamijou. Imagine Breaker's power was absolute, even in the face of such attacks, and Kamijou simply brushed their power aside. A block of ice, a powerful gust of wind, thin threads of acetylene that could burn through steel - Kamijou observed their wand movements and mentally forecasted the kind of attack that would come up next, positioning himself to shut down the nobles' magic.

Even as he negated the noblemen's attacks, Mikoto did not stand by idly. Knowing that sending electricity haphazardly could damage the shop, she decided to use magnetism instead. Making the calculations in her mind quickly, she plucked the steel swords out of each noble's hand and meshed them together in one pile of mangled metal and manipulated it. The ball of metal went flying around the room under her expert control, smashing into the heads of each noble and knocking them out. The only one not affected was Chulenne, who held a wand made of fine rosewood rather than metal. With a trembling hand, he held up the wand at Mikoto.

"_You…BITCH!_" While Mikoto was focusing on the others, he chanted an incantation. Despite his looks, he too was a powerful mage, and 5 towering golems twice his height rose from the ground.

"_Go! Rip them apart!_" the golems lumbered forward, but Kamijou had already seized the initiative. He charged at them and tapped the first one. The monstrous earth golem's limbs fell apart and turned to dust. As the other four lumbered towards him, he evaded quickly, remembering the incident in the London subway when he was almost defeated by a golem made of paper. As fast as possible, he tapped the nearest Golem with his right hand as he strafed past, reducing it to dust. Mikoto distracted the monsters with low-powered lightning, giving the boy more opportunities to strike. In less than a minute, the five Golems were no more.

"G-ghh!" Chulenne unconsciously stepped back, looking to his left and right. There was just one noble left.

"Y-you! Cover me! Defend me with your life while I leave!" he screeched.

_BZZZZZT._

His one hope fell, smoke rising from his burnt body.

Kamijou stepped forward. "Using magic only to cement your own authority...just giving out your magic name so cheaply like that...leaving others to do your dirty work..." he broke into a run. "Bastards like you are an insult to magicians!"

That fist was clenched tightly.

"I don't care if you're the ones 'chosen' by some founder. If you really think your luck to be born as nobles entitles you to do whatever the _hell_ you want, _then I'll destroy that illusion!_"

"H-hah...No, s-s-stop! Get away from meeeeeeeee-" his terrified cry was cut off by the sound of Kamijou's fist slamming into his face. A lot of pent-up frustration was packed in that punch, sending him reeling.

Mikoto exhaled deeply and grinned at Kamijou. "See? Fighting with me by your side isn't so bad, is it? Right, K- EHH WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, YOU PERVERT?!"

The boy in question was pressing his face into Jessica's well-developed chest. Or rather, the girl was hugging him hard, pressing his head into that area.

"Mmmmph...!"

Mikoto blushed and protested at where his head had been squashed into, but before she could zap him for his indecent behaviour, the other girls started crowding around her.

"Awesome!"

"That was incredible, _Mademoiselle_!"

"We're so sorry for our less-than-satisfactory conduct towards you, _Mademoiselle_! If we'd known who you were-"

"Ah, not really-"

"Wonderful~, _Mademoiselle_!" Scarron gushed. "And you too, _Monsieur~!_ Simply...wonderful!"

It went on like this for a bit longer before they were both ushered somewhat forcibly to the biggest table in the inn and given a complimentary breakfast fit for a king. Mikoto glared at the blushing Kamijou like it was his fault.

"Is this how it's always like for you?"

"Don't be ridiculous," he huffed. "This is real life, not a shounen manga series. Besides, you started this!"

"Huh," she rolled her eyes at his typical response. Not that she would admit it, but she'd felt exhilarated at what had happened. She'd actually felt happy to have done what she'd done, and the look on Jessica and the rest's faces filled her with contentment. It felt like that one time she'd 'joined' Judgement on a whim.

"What're you smiling about, Misaka? You look kinda creepy,"

"W-what?! I'm not smiling!" she blushed at having been found out. "A-anyway! Did you open that letter?"

"Letter? Oh yeah! _That_ letter!" he hurriedly took it out of the pocket inside his jacket.

"Hey - isn't there some writing on the envelope? I mean besides the name," At her words, Kamijou looked carefully at the writing. Besides the name on the envelope, which he'd already seen, there was some additional writing on the other side.

_N.B. DO NOT TOUCH THE INTERNAL CONTENTS WITH YOUR RIGHT HAND_ – the far more French-proficient Mikoto read out.

"Huh. I suppose whatever's inside is weak against your hand," she mused. She started to open the letter, but Kamijou snatched it from her.

"Lemme do it. I wouldn't put it past that bastard to send dangerous stuff in letters," she blushed at his reasoning and her grasp weakened subconsciously, letting him take the letter. "Ah- wait. I can..."

"Relax, it's fine," he said distractedly, opening the letter carefully with a knife he borrowed from Jessica. He started to put his left hand in to retreive the message, but before he could do so, the letter flew upwards out of the slit he'd made in the envelope and levitated on top of the table.

It was a red paper - _and it was smouldering_. A voice suddenly issued from the smoking red letter, eliciting a yelp from the two.

"_Kamijou Touma - Since You're Hearing This, It Looks Like You Weren't Stupid Enough To Touch This Magical Letter With Your Right Hand. Now Listen Up, You Piece Of Crap. You Didn't Return Last Night Like I Ordered You To. Punishment Can Come Later _[Kamijou Buried His Face In His Hands With A Whimper Of _Such Misfortune!_]_, But For Now, There Is A Job I Need You To Do. Some Idiot Students Are Headed For The Forest Of The Ardenn Near Our Academy. I Believe They Are In Danger Of Being Targeted By A Mage Thief, Named Fouquet Of The Crumbling Dirt, Who Visited Our Academy Last Night And Made Off With A Magical Artifact. Given That You're A Natural Enemy Of Mages And Magical Items, I Want You To Go And Rescue The 3 Students And The Two Commoners Accompanying Them. Got That? The Forest Of The Ardenn - Surely You've Seen It On The Way To Tristania. Now Hurry! Those Students Left At About 8 In The Morning. You Should Reach The Forest Ahead Of Them If You Leave Tristania As Soon As You Get This Letter, On Horseback."_

The letter suddenly burst into full-blown flames and the voice became a lot louder.

"_I PRAY FOR YOUR SUCCESS, KAMIJOU TOUMA. MORE TANGIBLY, TEN X EXTRA DUTIES FOR YOU IF ANY INJURY BEFALLS THOSE STUDENTS _OR_ THEIR FAMILIARS. AND TEN X HOMEWORK. __WRITTEN__ HOMEWORK. HOMEWORK WHILE PERFORMING DUTIES. HEH. GOOD LUCK. TA TA~_"

Kamijou looked ready to cry.

"So cruel! Damn you, Marc!"

"Hey! What was all that about?!" Mikoto asked in alarm. "Forest of the Ardenn?"

"Ahh whatever! I just have to go fight off some noble, right, Marc?" Kamijou got up and cried, looking somewhat bitter. "Fine! I'll go!" _Well, I needed the distraction anyway. This shouldn't be too hard. If it's a mage, I can oppose them._

Mikoto stood up too. "Ahh - Misaka. You stay here. I'll be back by evening,"

Lightning flashed. "Leave you by yourself - after finding you at last?! Don't screw around with me! We're sticking t-t-together!" she yelled at him, blushing fiercely. "B-besides, there's another reason." her voice became steady again and she grew serious. "I remember hearing about that Forest of the Ardenn - that priest friend of yours mentioned it over the radio. It lies on the path he's taking to get to this town,"

Kamijou stared at her thoughtfully. "So if we head for the forest, we might bump into Stiyl...Talk about killing two birds with one stone…"

The two of them abandoned their half-eaten breakfast and ran upstairs. Mikoto grabbed her bag and Kamijou took whatever he'd brought down to town as well.

"Ahh - leaving so soon, Monsieur?"

"Y-yeah! Urgent business, y'see!"

"That's too ba~d! Do come back again next time!" Scarron called out in his effeminate tone. Kamijou waved goodbye and ran to the stables.

"Well, it's fine if you wanna come along, Misaka - but there's one big problem…"

"W-What?"

"There's only one horse…" Kamijou said dejectedly, untying Ghost at the inn's stable. "Unless you wanna share or something…" The horse whinnied with a nod of its head, as if it was saying, '_One or two people? Not a problem for this old boy!_'

Mikoto blushed at the suggestion. "A-Ahh. Umm. Well." while stammering away, she remembered something, and hung her head in depression. "Animals don't like me, remember?"

"Huh? Oh, right...because of your biribiri field [It's an electromagnetic field caused by my AIM field, _not a freaking _BiriBiri _field, idiot!_], right? I remember your sister said something like that before…"

"Mmhm. Tokiwadai had a horse-riding course once but I had to sit it out..." Dark lines appeared over her depressed face.

Kamijou scrunched his forehead thoughtfully, then suddenly smiled. He got up on the horse, made himself comfortable, then held out his right hand.

"Eh?" Mikoto looked up at him in surprise. _It's just like that time before…_

But this time, he was really extending his right hand to her with that roguish smile. He wasn't pranking her or saying stupid things without reading the mood. She decided to trust him this time and took his hand. He suddenly switched his grip from overhand to underhand and pulled her up.

"Uwahh!" she gasped reflexively. A feeling of powerlessness flooded her body as soon as her hand made contact with his - that right hand was completely cancelling out her power. And, somehow, she didn't mind either...it didn't feel bad. He continued pulling her up, until she was comfortably seated side-saddle on the horse. He turned behind and grinned at her before squeezing the horse lightly with his legs, urging it forward. Ghost neighed enthusiastically and trotted forward, quite comfortable even with the weight of two on its reliable back.

"Oh, so _this_ was your idea," said Mikoto in an oddly high-pitched voice, still holding his right hand. "Cancel my AIM field with your hand...Well, I guess it couldn't be helped then!"

If one looked closely, her eyes had spinning spirals in them.

"Look out, I'm letting go!" he warned. He withdrew his right hand and her power instantly returned. Ghost neighed, startled by the EM field it had suddenly felt. The grey horse reared and galloped without warning.

"EEEEHHH?! WHY'D YOU LET GO?!" she screamed, reflexively grabbing his midriff for safety. Kamijou simply laughed and patted Ghost on its head as it cantered.

"Physical defects make animals dislike you? Overcome those, and true adventure beckons!" the boy laughed brashly.

"_IIIIIIDIIIIIOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTT! _Oh _geez_! What'd you have done if the horse threw us both off?!" but she couldn't keep from smiling as she said those words.

"Oh don't worry! Ghost is strong enough to tolerate a little BiriBiri-ness. Right, Ghost?" the horse whinnied, almost as if in response, and kept trotting forward. The boy and girl laughed despite themselves and set their sights on their distant destination.

* * *

**Part 8**

A monster walked towards his destination. He was carrying a large bag, with the full weight of it resting on his scrawny shoulders. Ordinarily, he would use his power to cancel out the weight vector of the bag, but he had consciously chosen not to do that. His cane had been disassembled and kept back in his bag; currently, he was making use of the item Last Order, in her trance, had given him: a charger, strapped to his leg, that converted the kinetic energy of his walking pace to electrical energy to recharge the electrode on his neck. Some semblance of normalcy had returned once he started using that charger. He now could walk normally without fear of having to recharge the battery when it was flat - although he also had to be careful not to over-charge the battery.

Pushing those mundane thoughts out of his head, he started thinking about the road ahead of him now.

_A new world. _

_Kamijou Touma is on it._

_She...no, _they_ want me to go to his side. _

_And then what?_

_Do I have to be his fucking bodyguard?_

As ridiculous as the notion sounded, he had come to the answer that that was what the Misaka Network essentially wanted him to do. They had set things up quite nicely for him too. He had seen several loitering around his area, and figured that they were staking out Yomikawa's apartment to watch over their Command Tower. They had even prepared the charger for him, just in case he was unable to find the resources to recharge his choker on his journey.

"_Things can't possibly go so easily for the #1 monster, after all" _What was that all about anyway? Was the network telling him to get off his ass and do some work?

_Nothing but questions._

And so he had left a note for his 'family' to find, and sneaked out to meet the other bastard. He took a taxi to a student dormitory building in District 7 and went up to the second-highest floor on the 8-storey building.

"Well, isn't this nostalgic," he spat out, standing before one of the apartment doors, looking at the name plate next to it.

Kamijou Touma

The strongest esper went inside, and looked at the strange scene inside the room.

There was a large mirror-like disc, about 2m in diameter, floating in the centre of the room. Right in front of it was an antenna about 1m in height, supported by a tripod. There were some people near the disc - three nuns. One blonde, blue-eyed nun with a stern expression, one little child with blonde hair and a worried expression, and a bespectacled one who was kneeling before the disc, with one of her hands placed on it. She looked like she was praying. The other two, on the other hand, were looking alertly at the other two teenagers in the room.

There was a young man wearing a cream-coloured suit and holding a crude black knife-like object in his hand. There was a young woman wearing the Kirigaoka Girls' School uniform, but with a warm pink top in place of the white blouse and with the blazer worn on her shoulders like a cape.

GROUP was assembled, once again.

"I'm glad you decided to come, Accelerator-san,"

"More than that, I'm shocked Musujime actually trusted your words enough to come all the way out here," he spat.

The red-haired teleporter glared at him. "I still don't believe half the things I've heard from him."

"And yet, here you are," the annoying disguise-boy said meaningfully, much to her irritation.

"Anyway, I have already learned all that I need to know from Sister Lucia here. Let me give you a short briefing - In Norse mythology, our world is one of nine hanging on the world tree, Yggdrasil. By using the rainbow bridge Bifröst, we can travel between the worlds. This disc you see before you is the gate to Bifröst. Once we go inside-"

"As usual, you talk too much," Accelerator growled. With a great rush of wind that sent the items in the room flying about, he propelled himself right at the disc. Musujime gasped as the mirror sucked him right inside, rippling wildly.

"Oya oya. There he goes. Well, I'll save the explanation for later then. Musujime-san?" he extended his hand to her.

"What a gentleman," she sneered, and walked forward on her own. Chuckling, despite having been rebuffed, the Aztec magician followed her into the mirror-like disc.

The scenery rippled and changed, turning into the vast space between worlds.

A glossy, barely-solid pathway glowing with the colours of the rainbow, surrounded top, bottom, left and right by black space, illuminated with stars and galaxies.

The three villains looked around at the scenery. Unabara Mitsuki looked up at the celestial lights, searching for Venus, as thoughts of the young lady he loved flooded his mind.

_Misaka-san actually used such an underhanded method to gain access to the rainbow bridge to get to another world - all for the sake of meeting you, Kamijou-san. Really, it makes me jealous just thinking about it._

The magician Etzali smiled to himself ruefully.

_But that's how it should be. Men who walk in the darkness have no right to this luxurious feeling. All I can do is watch over her from the darkness, and trust that you will uphold the promise you made._

_Another world. Another set of laws_, Musujime Awaki thought to herself as she beheld the landscape of Bifröst and the space around the bridge. She had gone so far to gain an answer as to why she had to live with this _ugly_ ability. And now, there was a chance to find another answer. For herself and the comrades she had sworn to protect.

_Guys...wait for me. Once I see this for myself, I'll be back - with a free ticket for all of you to escape from that hellish city._

And in front of them, the #1 started walking along the Rainbow Bridge, away from the still-open mirror-like gate from which they had just come, carrying the will of 9969 clones on his scrawny shoulders. Nobody knew what he was thinking. Even those who had walked alongside him through Academy City's darkness knew not for what he fought now. And that was how it had to be.

Who could understand the burden of the #1 monster?

His eyes set on the distance, Accelerator muttered, "My power is still working...Unabara! Where to?"

The Aztec magician smiled blandly. "Just follow me,"

And so the three villains broke into a run along the shiny, shimmering path of Bifröst.

Onto Halkeginia.

_To Be Continued_

Before I give you guys the preview, I'd just like to say a few words. Thank you all for your comments on my story! Your reviews have been encouraging, opened me up to new possibilities, and given me fresh concepts to mull over. Several of you have been thinking hard about the differences between Halkeginia and Earth in terms of how magic may be used, and about the differences in the systems used on each world. Apathetic Man and guest reviewer Eureka mentioned Idol Theory based on Brimir as an explanation for Halkeginian nobles' magical powers. Guest Conflict even mentioned that nobles might be like gemstones. The second idea particularly winded me, since it completely flipped conventional wisdom, turning the religious noble ladies and gentlemen of Halkeginia into scientifically-powered espers. I too have been thinking about this topic and have come up with a few ideas on the 5W1H of the differences in magical systems between the two worlds, but I won't tell you guys about it yet because of spoilers.

_But having said that_, my concept is still an evolving work, and may change as time goes on (buzzkill, yes, I know) if I get better ideas. Even so, I hope you guys will continue to submit your theories and thoughts on each chapter.

Finally, I'm the kind of guy who finds himself getting too absorbed in the plot of a story to properly watch out for character development or interpersonal relationship development. That's one of my flaws and I'm trying to find a good balance between these two aspects of writing. That's why this chapter doesn't advance the plot much even though it is so long (you can expect chapter 5 to be pretty long too, but C6 onwards should be shorter). But for those who want more details on plot points, do look out for the various clues scattered around here to make guesses on what might happen next.

Once again, I thank all of you for your support, and I do hope you guys will stick around for 5, 6, 7 and all the future chapters.

Ta~

Chapter 5 Preview

_"TTTL - [Turn To The Left]!_

"_Idiot! I'm never happy to...to see y-you suffer...Why can't you understand that?"_

_"Thanks, Misaka."_

_"What would you know about lèse majesté anyway?"_

_"So we've got to wade right into another Coup d'etat, huh?"_

_I hate it when you run around and get injured because you're helping someone...but I hate it even more that you've become like this._

_"__This place is rich in Norse Culture, even if the denizens don't realise it themselves"_


	5. Chapter 5

HOPES and FEARS

Chapter 5: Maidens' Decisions. _Brave_Talk_

**Part 1**

"Miss Logueville, this type of job could be done by a commoner. Why do you have to do it yourself?"

Miss Logueville, Kirche von Zerbst, Louise de la Vallière and the girl who called herself Tabitha were sitting on a horse-drawn cart, in pursuit of a certain thief who had carried out the daring theft of one of the Academy of Magic's treasured magical artefacts, the Staff of Destruction.

"Well, that is because I _am_ a commoner," Miss Logueville gave this answer with a smile. Kirche von Zerbst was taken aback by her answer, but ploughed on ahead. "But aren't you Headmaster Osmond's secretary? How come…?"

The older lady simply smiled secretively and looked away.

"Oh come on~ Just tell me what happened!" Kirche pressed. She felt somewhat insecure - after all, pressing men, not women, for information was in her comfort zone - but the need to know was too great. But she was stopped by Louise.

"We Tristanians do not make a habit of pressing others for information they do not wish to divulge, von Zerbst." she said coldly. And with that, they got into another argument. Hiraga Saito sighed at their behaviour. Really, it was all their fault that this had to happen. The previous night, just after he'd gotten a new sword from the mousy-faced Tristanian arms dealer with Louise's money, Kirche had bought him a new sword as well. _Her _sword was way better, and he'd have loved to keep it as his personal weapon (_no offence Derf, but you're really rusty and in ruin_...), but Louise took offence at that and demanded that he cut ties with the alluring Germanian noblewoman simply because of some stupid family grudge.

_Stupid Louise...if the de Vallière family keeps losing its men to von Zerbst lovers, I'm not surprised at all, really. Who'd choose a girl with a washboard for a chest over a w-woman like K-Kirche...uwaahh...she's really got it where it counts..._

Anyway, the two had argued for hours and eventually decided to settle it with a duel of sorts. He had ended up getting hung by the feet, suspended from the floating Sylphid (_that damned blue-haired girl!_) and the two girls had taken turns attacking him. And one of their attacks had misfired and destroyed a portion of the wall of the Academy building. And after that, they'd been attacked by a great big monster made of dirt...the same monster whose controller/master they were chasing after now.

He didn't understand Louise's mindset for volunteering for this mission. _You just got attacked by some monster, and now you want to go chasing after it? Is it not enough that you just barely got away with your life yesterday?!_ But as her familiar, he had to follow her to this battlefield and defend her with his life.

_Oh what the hell. Now I really wish I could just be Kirche's familiar...her sword is better, she's much stronger, and...much bigger too..._

The girls ignored the salivating boy and continued their argument.

"It's your impetuousness that got me into this mess. To think we're out to capture Fouquet…"

Louise gave an angry stare at Kirche, "What? Didn't you volunteer yourself in?"

"If you had came alone, wouldn't Saito be in danger, too, Louise the Zero?"

Louise gaped at her, then turned red and looked away in rage. She had struck a nerve.

_Then what about Hiraga? He seems like a normal guy, completely unrelated to magic…To pull him here to this world-_

When that boy Kamijou had asked her this, she had pretty much stormed off in anger - and guilt. While she had already accepted the reality that her Familiar was this commoner boy who had no special skills or abilities, and was too stupid and hotheaded for his own good, she had also accepted as fact that he had come from another world - a world where there were no nobles or commoners or magic. He probably had his own family and friends there - and she had forcefully ripped him from that world into her world and forced him to serve as her familiar in a system that was completely foreign to him. Part of her wanted to send him back and summon a "real" familiar. And yet, there was another part of her that wanted to follow tradition and keep him. Each Mage was only allowed one familiar, except for the Great Founder who had several, as befit his status.

_O Great Founder...what is this poor maiden to do?_

"We'll have to walk from here onwards." Miss Logueville said, jerking Louise out of her reverie. She looked around at her surroundings: the horse-drawn cart had stopped just before a forest. She recognised it to be the Forest of Ardenn. The group then disembarked from the carriage, and proceeded to the small path into the forest. She tried her best to ignore the show of cowardice Kirche was putting on for Saito, trying to get him to protect her (she was gratified to see that he was not rising to the bait). As they went deeper into the forest, led by Miss Logueville, they reached a large clearing with a single log cabin in the centre. The secretary immediately hid behind a bush, and everyone followed suit.

"According to my information, Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt is hidden within that house," she whispered.

"What, seriously? We found him just like that?"

"So what do we do now?"

"Ambush," Tabitha whispered.

"Given Fouquet's powers, it is better for the Mages to remain behind and provide cover while one or two of the others moves forward to lure him away,"

"Alright...so who's gonna be bait?" Saito asked.

"The one with the best reflexes," Tabitha intoned, and everyone stared at him.

"Me and my big mouth," he grumbled, but went forward anyway. He drew the golden sword Kirche had given him (much to Louise's chagrin), and when his runes started glowing, he moved forward. Without making a sound, he covered the distance from their hiding spot to the cabin within seconds. He held his sword at the ready and kicked open the door, charging inside. When he received no reaction, he looked around and confirmed that there were no enemies hiding anywhere. Satisfied, he stepped outside to call everyone over to the house with a pre-arranged signal, then looked once again at the interior, this time focusing on the items in the house.

The house was very simple - with a single table and a fireplace, and some assorted furniture around. There was a bottle of wine on the table, and there was dust everywhere.

"That's strange," Miss Logueville said thoughtfully. "He was supposed to be here. Oh, never mind. I suppose it was our good luck that he was absent when we got here. Stay here, students. I will go outside and look. Miss Vallière, would you kindly watch the outside for us? The rest, please look around for clues leading to Fouquet,"

Even though she was a commoner, she too was a Mage, and an older, more experienced one at that. The students followed her instructions without question. Louise stepped outside, gripping her wand tightly, while Saito, Kirche and Tabitha went through the contents of the house that were stashed away in cupboards, drawers, and the like.

"The Staff of Destruction," a voice suddenly came. It was Tabitha, holding up a box. She laid it on the table and placed the lid next to the box. Kirche and Saito peered inside curiously. It was a long metal tube with some strange protrusions. Tabitha and Kirche looked at it in wonder, but Saito was only confused by it.

"Wait. Isn't this-" Saito was suddenly cut off by a scream from the outside.

"_Louise!_" the three dropped what they were doing and ran out, Saito holding the Staff.

_Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt._

As his name implied, he was an Earth Mage. And now, at the edge of the clearing, ready to strike, stood a massive Golem made of rock. Raising its massive feet, it lumbered forward. Its movements were slow, but the size of the Golem made it cover territory very fast indeed.

"Crap - _Louise!_ Run!" Saito urged. But she did not listen. Instead, she started chanting incantations with her wand held out. An explosion occurred on the side of the Golem, but it continued lumbering forward, undeterred.

"Louise! It's too big! You can't beat it on your own!"

"No! If I subdue this, no one will ever call me Louise the Zero ever again!" she said stubbornly, continuing to chant.

"Idiot! If you die, it's all over, isn't it?!" Saito shouted at her. He charged at the Golem desperately. "I'll buy some time, so _RUN!_"

He swung his sword at the Golem. The golden sword, made by master Germanian craftsmen, contacted the Golem with a resounding clang - and shattered. Saito yelled out in shock and pain as the pieces of the blade went flying.

_Was-Was I too late?!_

"_Vallière!_" Kirche shouted.

Louise screamed.

Saito shut his eyes. But then -

"TTTL - _[Turn To The Left]!_" A voice commanded. Kirche and Tabitha gasped. They had no idea where the voice came from, or what it had uttered_._Almost as if in response to the voice, the Golem's arm suddenly curled to the left and harmlessly hit the ground. Saito had popped his eyes open when he had heard the voice and saw that they had been saved. The golem's arm had hit the ground to their left.

He reached behind him and drew Derflinger, which was still strapped to his back. The strange power he had first used against Guiche a few days before activated, making his runes shine brightly. With the high speed granted to him by his runic seal, he grabbed Louise and fled from the scene, putting as much distance between himself and the golem as he could.

"Saito!"

"_What were you thinking, idiot?!_" he shouted, slapping her.

"But… but I can't take this lying down… I'm always being treated like a fool by others…" she cried.

"It's fine." he said roughly. "Just stand back and leave this to me!" with that, he held up the Staff of Destruction that he was still holding on to. He was right when he thought he'd recognised it earlier - it was a weapon from his home-world. A rocket launcher, to be precise. And his left hand contained a seal that allowed him to use weapons freely, as if they were extensions of his own arm. He questioned his own knowledge at first - after all, how could he know how to operate such weaponry despite having zero military experience? But he let it be. Trusting in this weird ability of his had netted him a win against Guiche. Perhaps it would also guarantee his survival on this battlefield.

"Don't stand behind the staff, there will be a back blast!" he warned, preparing the weapon for firing and aiming it at the Golem. Once he had checked his safety, he fired. A ringing sound resonated in his head thanks to the loud noise that issued from the metal tube. But it was not for nothing - a fiery projectile flew out, resembling a comet, and headed for the Golem.

A deafening roar sounded and one of its arms was smashed to pieces.

_D-damn! That wasn't enough! Now we're done for!_

The Golem started to regenerate. By absorbing the dirt in the ground, it was able to recreate its arm.

"LTLASTCOG - _[Lock The Legs And Shift The Centre Of Gravity]_!"

The massive stone monster's legs suddenly locked in place and it wobbled, almost falling over. Even as the harried Louise and Saito wondered what had happened, a sparking noise issued from outside the forest and a lightning bolt flew out from within the trees. It struck the Golem and threw off its balance slightly.

"Lightning?! How?" Kirche cried hoarsely.

"Not working" Tabitha said calmly. While it was powerful, the bolt had not done anything to the Golem - but she was not altogether right. The Golem had started to stagger, and seemed to have lost interest in Louise. Instead, it stepped backwards, seemingly no longer interested in Louise and Saito.

"Hey Tabitha - is it just me, or is that monster _scared_?"

Tabitha had no answer for her. But someone else did.

"Oh, it is. Mokkerkalfe is nothing more than a cowardly monster," A tall strapping man was standing beside them. They had not even seen him coming. He was dressed in black and had flaming red hair and a barcode tattoo on his cheek. He reeked of cologne, and was smoking a cigarette.

"But let's leave it to _those two_ to finish it,"

The two girls barely had any time to be shocked - from the forest came the sound of hooves. A pale grey horse burst out into the clearing and charged forward towards the Golem.

A Level 0 boy and a Level 5 girl had entered the battle.

* * *

**Between The Lines 1**

The Lagdorian Lake.

It was a great lake that crossed the border of two countries - Gallia and Tristain, and it was known for strange phenomena like the Water Spirit that lived in it, and thousands of years ago, it had been regarded as a holy location.

Right now, there was a floating disc located near the edge of the water. It was like a mirror, 2 metres in diameter, and floating about a meter up in the air. As it reflected the evening sun, it started shimmering and distorting, and large ripples formed in it. A hand poked out, and then a person walked out. He was followed quickly by two others. A white-haired boy in warm clothing, a boy in a cream-coloured suit holding a crude blade-like object in his hand, and a girl with long red hair tied in twin tails and holding a torchlight stepped out into the land of Tristain.

"So _this_ is our other world?" Musujime Awaki wrinkled her nose. "I was expecting something more...otherworldly,"

Accelerator focused on more important matters.

_My electrode is still working. Looks like that thing controlling Last Order was right...the signals coming from the Sisters are still reaching me. The charger is an added bonus, but I guess I shouldn't rely on it all the time, just in case it spoils the battery._

He opened his bag and took out his cane. Reassembling it, he leaned on it before switching off his electrode and plugging it into the charger strapped to his leg for charging on-the-go. He looked back at the other two as he did this.

"Don't speak so soon," the boy who called himself Unabara Mitsuki warned, in response to Musujime's earlier words. "We'll never know how different this world is from ours until we explore further. But...what next?"

The three looked at each other, puzzled.

"Well, this is troublesome,"

"No map, no car, no idea where the hell we are…" Musujime facepalmed.

"And it looks like night may be falling soon,"

Accelerator clicked his tongue impatiently and looked around. There was a forest all around.

"I see a path there!" Unabara pointed at the forest.

"So we just have to walk it out?"

"Well...I suppose…" Unabara sweatdropped.

And so they walked.

After an hour, they still had not cleared the forest. However, it seemed luck was on their side. As they reached a crossroads where their forest path merged with another path, they heard the sound of wheels scraping the ground. All three former Covert Ops personnel went on alert. It seemed that the sound was caused by a wagon drawn by two horses. A man was directing the wagon, and he was dressed in patchy clothes with a hat.

"A...wagon, drawn by horses? Seriously? What era are we in?!"

Unabara ignored the teleporter and walked over to the elderly man on the wagon.

"Er, hello?" _I can't say suspicious things like 'tell us where we are' or 'what country is this'_. "I'm so glad there were other people in this place! The three of us were lost here, you see," He spoke this in English, seeing as the old man hardly looked Asian, and English was commonly understood anyway - and then he realised that his decision had no basis in reality, as they were on a different world altogether.

The man stopped the wagon when he saw Unabara, but frowned at his words. "_Etes-vous des étrangers? Où venez-vous?_"

Unabara closed his eyes. _It's French...whatever does that mean? Don't tell me we didn't go to another world, but simply went to France?_ In any case, he had to continue talking to the man and perhaps ask for a lift. He switched to French.

"We're not foreigners," he said fluently in French, answering the man's question of where they had come from. "We came here with a bigger party, but we got separated from the others. Sir, would you kindly give us a lift to the nearest town?"

The old man did not believe him, however. "Go away! There's no space on my wagon for anymore!"

The wagon was empty.

"Well, we would be troubled if we cannot find a town as soon as we can. Could we work out a deal?"

"No! No deal! Foreigners bring nothing but trouble! Just the other day, I kindly brought two foreigners to town, and I absolutely regret my decision!" the man said stubbornly and cracked a whip. His horses started moving.

Accelerator closed his eyes and spat.

"Old man...I've got a deal for you," his hand went up to his neck.

* * *

**Part 2**

Kamijou Touma and Stiyl Magnus tied their respective horses to the cart on which Louise and co. had come along. The cart now had 8 passengers - Louise, Tabitha, Kirche, Mikoto, Kamijou, Stiyl, Saito...and the unconscious Miss Logueville. Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt had revealed herself earlier - to the Mages' shock, it was actually the Academy Headmaster's secretary herself. Luckily, though, her lack of knowledge on the weapon known as the Staff of Destruction had led to her easy defeat at Saito's hands. But the students were too distracted to care about this big reveal.

"So...would someone care to explain what exactly happened just then?" Kirche asked wearily, directing her question to the group at large. To the nobles of Tristain, the events of the past few 15 minutes had been something inexplicable; something that they had never encountered in their lessons in the Academy or in their past experiences.

Three foreigners had worked together with Saito and successfully brought down a Triangle-Class Mage - although the simple way they had done it suggested that they could have won even if they had faced that mage individually.

Firstly, the red-haired man, who gave his name as "Stiyl Magnus", had somehow_ thrown off_ Fouquet's magic just by simple words. To the Tristanian Mages, it did not even sound like proper words. And yet, with that, he had stopped a giant Golem and saved Saito and Louise from getting crushed.

Secondly, the brown-haired girl, who had introduced herself as "Misaka Mikoto" (they noted that her name followed the same convention as Hiraga Saito, with the surname before the given name), had used some powerful form of magic - it was a bright orange beam that had flown towards the Golem and destroyed its entire upper body in one shot. Kirche guessed it was a fire-wind spell, combining burning energy with a mass of compressed air, like Tabitha's Air Hammer spell. But what was her class? She had completely destroyed a Golem made by an Earth Mage who was at least Triangle-Class. While such classifications were quite straightforward, there were also informal subdivisions between them to give a more accurate representation of a mage's power - after all, two mages who could combine three elements would both be referred to as Triangle Mages, but the one with more experience or power would obviously be considered superior to the other. This Misaka girl must have been a senior Mage, most likely of a Triangle Level. _Surely one that young could not have reached the level of Square...right_? Tabitha also noted that this girl had not used a wand when she cast her magic.

Lastly, the boy, Kamijou Touma, had reduced the Golem to a pile of pebbles...just by punching it. When she had first seen him falling out of a silver portal-like object with a severed right hand that he regenerated seconds later, Louise had wondered exactly what kind of power he was hiding. She had witnessed him getting attacked by Marc in his Healing Ward, but when the attack met his right hand, it just dissipated. And now, when he hit the Golem with his right hand, it was reduced to nothing.

When Kirche asked her question, Mikoto stared at her for a few seconds. The Germanian girl narrowed her eyes - she had noticed that this girl behaved in a cordial manner with Tabitha and Louise, but was somewhat cold towards her. _Does she not like me or something?_

But when she spoke, she did so normally. "I suppose this isn't gonna end if we just say, 'we're not from these parts', is it?"

"Of course not~!" sang Kirche. Her natural curiosity was getting the better of her yet again.

"It's some Academy City thing, isn't it?" Saito asked excitedly. He was sitting at the front, directing the horses. Louise was too curious by his words to berate him for not focusing on his job.

"Academy City? What's that?"

Mikoto frowned. _How do I tell them as much as I can without leaking too much about Academy City?_

"It's a city from our world that raises students to develop powers - I'm one of those who found their way to an ability by taking part in the city's curriculum," she bit the bullet and said. Academy City's power development programme was shrouded in mystery to the outside world, but most people had some idea that it was about developing superhuman abilities.

"I can control lightning to some degree," she said vaguely. It didn't look like the red-haired girl with the annoyingly huge chest was going to shut up until she had learned something about her, so she spoke those words.

"Really?" Kirche scrunched her eyebrows. "That didn't look like lightning at all, though,"

"Uh…"

"It's just...an application of lightning, you could say," Thankfully, Kamijou cut in. Kirche's attention was immediately directed onto him.

"Then what about you? What was that power? Are you really so strong that the Golem fell apart with just that one punch?" she leaned forward as she asked, making the boy blush slightly. Mikoto couldn't stop herself from going _'tch!_', then realised that Louise had done the same thing.

"Ahh. No, it's not like that…" Kamijou folded his arms and looked down thoughtfully. "My power...is something I was born with. It's called Imagine Breaker and-"

"You were born with a power? Then...doesn't that make you..._a noble_?" Louise cried.

"Pfftt!" Mikoto looked away, her shoulders shaking.

"That wasn't necessary, Misaka," he deadpanned.

"But you...a noble?! Kuroko would straighten her _tendencies_ out before you could start behaving _nobly_!"

"I don't wanna hear that from a Tokiwadai _Ojou-sama_ who goes around kicking vending machines!"

The three Tristanians simply looked at them, bewildered, unable to follow the conversation that had just taken place in a foreign language, not even Louise who had had the 'Tongues' spell cast on her. Huffing, Kamijou turned back to Louise.

"No, I'm not a noble. And neither is this girl, certainly not _["Hey!"]_. As for Stiyl, he _can't_ be a noble 'cause he's a priest. Where we come from, we don't-"

Louise stuck her head up in the air when she heard this. "Commoners becoming nobles. That is...truly the height of uncivilised behaviour,"

"What? I...I don't get what you mean by 'noble' in this case, but if you're saying I don't deserve my status, you'd better take that back. I worked my way up to this level, y'know!"

"What does that matter?! 'Work'? In the end, you were still not chosen by the Holy Founder! Having a power like that is considered a blasphemy against Lord Brimir!"

_What?!_ Mikoto looked at Kamijou, scandalised.

"Look, like I was about to say, we're not from these parts! We don't do things that way." Kamijou spoke patiently.

"Oh? Then where are you from? Surely Germania, that country of barbaric upstarts!"

"Think further," snapped the red-haired priest before Kirche could come up with a suitably sassy rebuttal. "We're not even from this world,"

"Not...from this world?" Louise repeated slowly. Her own familiar had said this to her before, and while she had not believed him at first, she was starting to have doubts - the way he had so effortlessly handled the Staff of Destruction that even the Triangle Mage Fouquet could not use seemed to support his claim.

"Yeah," Stiyl oozed condescension. "We come from a different world. One where there is a reason for magicians to wield the power they do; one where power doesn't rest in the hand of lazy ingrates like it does here,"

"L-lazy ingrates?!" Louise shouted, drawing her wand.

Luckily, there were still those with presence of mind on the cart. Simultaneously, Tabitha's hand and Mikoto's fist came down on Louise and Stiyl's heads, one lightly, the other quite heavily.

"Cool off," Tabitha said softly, but reproachfully.

"Thanks for the timeout," Kamijou chuckled at Stiyl's expression. But he was grateful for the blue-haired girl's support. This made the explanation easier. "But anyway, Stiyl's right. We do come from another world. Same as Hiraga. Hiraga doesn't know it, but there's magic there as well,"

"Ehh? Seriously?!"

"But it's completely different from here," Stiyl intoned, rubbing his head. He briefly explained magicians and their behaviour on Earth. "To sum up, magicians are those who have found their way to power to achieve a certain aim. And they are the complete opposite of nobles. They are those who would do whatever they can to achieve their goal,"

_Basically, magicians are kids. Kids with knives, kids who are crying and trembling, for they were once betrayed by the world._

_Magicians are like this. They have wishes, and once prayed to God, but never got a response. Having lost it, they could only toss their bodies into this underground world called magic._

Kamijou silently remembered what Tsuchimikado had told him back during that Angel Fall incident. No wonder Stiyl was mad. He had thrown himself fully into magic, turning his entire body into the power of the King of Witch Hunters - for the sake of his own wish. This entire world of Halkeginia, on the other hand, where the power to realise your dream was out of reach for all except those born into noble families, was basically a slap in the face to Magicians from Earth.

"Well...anyway. Misaka is a student who went through Academy City's power development programme and so gained a power. Stiyl is a magician who uses Runes to fight. I suppose that's a suitable explanation, no?"

"You still haven't explained your power, boy," Kirche winked at him.

Kamijou silently looked at his right fist.

* * *

**Between The Lines 2**

Three former covert operatives from Academy City's darkness were seated in an old wagon. Accelerator sat in front, right behind the terrified old man who was driving the wagon.

"Old man,"

"Y-Yes, my Lord?" he said.

"Relax, would you?" Accelerator clicked his tongue at his response. "I need some answers,"

"W-what is it?"

"What country is this?"

"Gallia," the old man took a deep breath to steady himself before he spoke. "We're on the way to la Rochelle, a port city. It is the nearest town."

"A port city? Very good,"

Unabara spoke up. "Gallia, huh? That's the name given to France during Roman times,"

"Roman times? Don't tell me we time-travelled?" Musujime rolled her eyes.

"It's hard to tell. We'll have to explore further before we make any reasonable conclusions,"

"Tell us more about the geography of this place," the teleporter ordered.

"We...we're going into Gallia now, and the country we just left behind is Tristain. This continent has three more countries in it - Germania, Romalia and the Floating Country of Albion,"

"Floating?"

"Yeah," he answered gruffly. "It's a land with too much wind stones, so it just floats in the air. My lady and my Lords must be from somewhere really far out if you don't even know that,"

"Shut up, old man,"

Unabara leaned forward interestedly. "This...isn't the first time you've seen supernatural phenomena like that, is it?"

Accelerator had to agree with his observation. The man had been scared for his life when he used his powers to frighten him earlier (he had used vector manipulation to mould the soil surrounding the wagon into many spikes that pointed right at the Wagon, threatening to pierce and destroy it), but he had not acted in the manner expected of one who was seeing esper powers used against them for the first time.

"It isn't the first time I've seen a noble cast spells, if that's what you're asking, m'lord. But it is the first time I've seen nobles cast spells without using a wand,"

"Wand?" Musujime said in a low voice. "This talk of 'magic', again?"

The man looked questioningly at her, "Well, of course. What else would you call it? Nobles use magic and the commoners can't,"

"Nobles and commoners? Kindly explain this political system," Unabara said in his usual polite tone. The old man gave them a terse brief.

"I see. By the way, what year is it?"

The man gave him a weird look before sighing in resignation. "It is the year 6242,"

The three teenagers looked at each other.

_Have we...accidentally time-travelled to the future?_

* * *

**Part 3**

"Hmm, I see. Looks like Miss Logueville herself was Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt…" nodded Old Osmond. "I made a mistake hiring her, it seems."

The old man shook his head ruefully, then suddenly produced a pipe from his sleeve. "Well, at least I can smoke to my heart's content now that that uptight woman is no longer here to control my habits!" everyone sweat-dropped at his sudden change of mood, but the older regulars at the Academy simply sighed, having accepted his quirks (and Stiyl simply looked horrified at the idea that someone actually used to prevent him from smoking). "Well done, Miss Vallière, Miss Tabitha, and Miss Zerbst. You three accepted this mission bravely, and performed well. I have already informed the Imperial Court and requested that the title of Chevalier be conferred on Miss Zerbst and Miss Vallière. Miss Tabitha, you have already distinguished yourself with that title, so you will receive the Elven Medallion,"

Louise looked at him, wondering, "_Speaking of Saito, what is his reward?_" In the end, it was the combined attacks of Saito, the brown-haired girl and Kamijou that had brought down the Golem, so should they not be rewarded even more handsomely? But she could not question the Headmaster's decisions either…

He looked at the three Japanese teenagers, standing next to the Albionian-looking priest. "I also extend my thanks to the rest of you. Dear me...it seems Miss Vallière really has a knack for summoning Familiars from other worlds…"

"_They're not my familiars!_ ...er. Sir," Louise stuttered. She had to correct this misconception that she was a magnet for weirdoes!

"Yes, I know, Miss Vallière. I was just yanking your chain," the headmaster said cheerfully.

"I apologise that I am unable to arrange for such decorations to be conferred upon you all. Tristain's policy on those who come from abroad really is unfortunate," he said ruefully. "But I welcome you to our academy and invite you to stay here awhile as our guests. I understand you are travelling, but it is always good to take a rest before starting on the next leg of your journey, is it not? This is the least we can do for you, who have honoured our Academy with your valuable contributions today."

"Thank you for the kind offer, sir," Stiyl replied politely. "We are new to this country and I was hoping to learn more about Tristain. An Academy would be an excellent place to stay,"

"Sir." Saito suddenly spoke up. He looked serious. "I was wondering if I could speak to you privately? I have some questions,"

Osmond nodded. "Very well. I was hoping to speak to you, in any case. Well then, please leave us be, students and my fellow educators. Oh - do remember, tonight is the Ball of Frigg! Since this incident with Fouquet is resolved, the ball will go on - and you three ladies will be the main attraction. So go dress nicely~!"

* * *

**Part 4**

As a prestigious institution for young aristocrats, the Tristain Academy of Magic not only taught students how to control their powers, but also raised them to be graceful, well-bred nobles. As such, social events like formal dinners and balls took place regularly. Misaka Mikoto just so happened to come to the Academy when one of those events, the Ball of Frigg, was in place.

The magical scene of the beautifully dressed Mages dancing slowly to the tune of the band unfolded before that starry-eyed maiden.

"What're you so excited about?" A boy's voice brought her back to reality. "Doesn't Tokiwadai do this kinda thing all the time?"

She turned towards him in annoyance. It was a formal occasion, but he still wore his school uniform with that familiar orange shirt. She too hadn't brought any formal wear, and so had settled for the best she could find - a white blouse with a dark red skirt that stopped above her knees. "Tokiwadai this, Tokiwadai that...where the hell are you picking up these rumors?"

She sipped from her glass, savoring his deflated expression. "But you're actually kinda right. We do have lessons on ballroom dancing and etiquette; just...we haven't had an actual dance with g-guys or anything," her voice went decrescendo, practically whispering the last few words.

"Huh. Is that so?"

"Mmhm. The Gardens of Education are off-limits to men, and in any case, the school frowned on relationships. It was a stupid rule anyway..." _Get the hint already!_

"Heh~," he said blandly.

"Yeah...

Mikoto shot him a glance. _How dense could he get?_ She glared at him, then decided to just bite the bullet.

"Hey. Let's dance," she declared straight. She was unable to keep from blushing, but her voice was steady.

"Hah? But I don't know how to-"

"It's fine as long as you follow me!" She hissed. "Relax! It'll be just like that time during the Daihaseisai Night Festival!"

"That's what I'm worried about! That some teleporter will appear out of nowhere and mess me up like last time!"

Mikoto laughed at his words and continued pulling him into the floor and quickly helped him get in position - his left hand going across her back to her left waist, and his right hand holding her outstretched left hand. She placed her free right hand on his left shoulder and led him along on a slow waltz. It was clumsy, but not too bad. Indeed, it was not like Kamijou Touma could not match up his movements with a partner. Besides, she felt this was alright. It felt right.

"See? You're doing fine for an amateur,"

Kamijou was busy looking down at his feet, but at least he had the good grace to look at her directly when she spoke."Really? I'm already at my limit just avoiding stepping on your toes or bumping into others,"

They moved with the rhythm silently for a while. Kamijou took the opportunity to look around. Hiraga was at the other side of the great hall, dancing with Louise, who, even Kamijou had to admit, looked beautiful today, in a manner completely unlike her usual everyday self. He noted that Hiraga had looked a little depressed earlier, holding a bottle of wine and standing by himself, but he seemed better now.

"Hey. It's not polite to stare at other c-c-cou - _people_ when you're dancing!" He turned back to face the blushing, pouting Mikoto and chuckled. "Sorry. I was just thinking about those two," he indicated Louise and Saito with his chin. "Hiraga too was forcefully taken to this world like I was. Of course, he wants to go back, but he seems a lot happier now compared to when he first came here,"

"But...doesn't he have a family and friends back home?"

"Of course. But that doesn't mean this place is _all that _bad,"

She nodded, lips pursed. "Speaking of family and friends... He's not the only one with people waiting for him back on earth,"

Kamijou's expression sobered.

"Everyone was so worried about you," she shook her head.

"You mean when I left earth?"

"Even before that, actually," He averted his eyes. Mikoto frowned at him, then suddenly stamped on his foot.

"Ow! What was that for?!" He shout-whispered, so as not to disturb the other dancers.

"_That_ was for Hawaii, i~diot," she sang, sticking her tongue out at him, continuing to lead him like nothing had happened.

"Showing such a happy face whenever I suffer...you really are evil, Misaka," he muttered, sullen.

"Idiot! I'm never happy to...to see y-you suffer..." Again, her voice got gradually softer, and she lowered her gaze. "Why can't you understand that?"

"Misaka..."

"If you'd asked me to come along with you to wherever you went to after Hawaii..._I would have joined you_," she said strongly, her grip on his hand tightening, stopping the dance. "If you'd just relied on me, this may not have happened. It didn't even have to be me! Don't you have powerful allies? Like that priest, or that blonde guy?"

"Yeah. I know," Kamijou replied softly. He started moving again, leading her this time, copying her movements from before. "I still remember what you told me when I got back home after the war. But how could I get you involved in things like these? You have enough trouble in Academy City. You have the Sisters to worry about. Its not fair to get you so involved with my problems too,"

"Your problems?" She repeated in a high-pitched voice. "Since when were all those _your_ problems? I know you have this...this _hero thing_, this _saving people thing_. I know it's wrong of me to criticize this aspect of your personality, but why do you have to get involved with every single problem you witness? You saved my Sisters but not before you were dragged to death's door by that... That _monster_! You stopped the war, but at what cost?" Her voice was barely discernible above the music. "And Gremlin...no matter how I look at it, there was no reason for you to get involved!"

"It's not like that. Science and magic were never meant to mix. It's because the two sides started to overlap that all..._this_ happened." He squeezed his eyes shut, surprising Mikoto with the sudden release of emotion, despite his quiet voice. "And I'm at the center of it all."

His eyes slowly opened, and Mikoto sharply inhaled when she saw the fierce light in them. Resolutely, the Imagine Breaker said softly, "That's why I have to end it myself. Gremlin, Othinus, the Science Guardians...I'll see things through to the end. There is no giving up halfway here. That isn't the kind of guy I am." His voice took on a rueful tone. "I believe that isn't the kind of guy the _old Kamijou Touma_ was, either."

Misaka bit her lip despondently. "Then what about...what happened in Hawaii? After we found out that that Birdway girl had pretty much used us as pawns?"

Kamijou understood what she was driving at without her having to say it. Looking as if he'd just been slapped, Kamijou averted his eyes with a grimace.

Mikoto looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up. I know it was painful for you that time,"

"Mm," he mumbled dully, looking away.

Frowning sternly, she squeezed his right hand until he turned his attention back to her. "But don't think..._Don't think you're the only one who felt that way!_"

"Misaka…" he murmured, surprised at her emotional response.

"I knew there was something different about you ever since I met you in the capital yesterday. I can tell - you're not the same guy who saved me and 10000 girls in August. You're not the same guy who saved Kuroko just because my Sister asked you to. You're not the same guy who walked out of a hospital with your life hanging by a thread to stop a meaningless fight."

After a period of silence, Kamijou asked silently, "What're you trying to say, Misaka?"

"I'm saying you've changed, and not for the better," she said, looking him in the eye. "You started questioning yourself and your way of living after what happened in Hawaii. I was silly to even think of asking you to give up fighting. I suppose that's a part of you nobody can take away. I hate it when you run around and get injured because you're helping someone...but I hate it even more that you've become like this - I hate that you've become this unresponsive to people and reluctant to trust them. You stepped up to save that girl in the bar, and those three students against that giant, but I could tell you were different. I could tell you were still questioning the wisdom of that decision,"

"And is that wrong?" he shot back. "I messed up, ever since the end of the war. If my 'way of living' caused me to create this mess, then obviously I'd need to rethink things, right?! I just rushed into problems before this. I just swung my fist blindly at the enemy before my eyes, without thinking about the enemy hiding out of sight. And that's how Birdway took advantage of me and used me to her advantage. Can you really say it's wrong of me to want to change because of this?!"

"Yes, I can," she said simply. Kamijou gaped at her. She had said those three words so simply, so naturally, like saying the world was round, or that the sun rose in the East.

"Yes, I can," she repeated. "How many times have you saved someone's life, protected someone's smile, or set someone's heart at ease with your actions? And how many times have you created a tragedy? To want to change your way of looking at things just because of this one failure is to deny all the things you did before. How do you think I would feel seeing you like this? How do you think those girls would feel? How would Kuroko feel? What about all those people you saved during the war and in Hawaii?"

"This is different, Misaka! The scale, the kind of people involved...this isn't like those incidents!"

She simply giggled innocently at those words like they were a joke. "You're saying that? _You_, the one who challenged the City's #1 esper like it was nothing and saved 10000 girls at one shot?"

Kamijou looked at her in despair. It was like all his actions since leaving Hawaii were just being denied, like all his reasoning was being shot down.

"So what should I do, then?" he asked, his voice brittle. Mikoto beamed at him. There was an infectious strength in her smile and her voice.

"I want you..._to just stop worrying_," she said, in the manner of a senior advising a troubled junior. "I've said it before when you first came back home, and in Hawaii, but since you don't seem to have let the message sink in…" she strengthened her grip as she said that menacingly, much to his chagrin. "I'll say it again - you're not alone,"

"But-"

"Shut uuuuuuup," she drawled. "8 people came to rescue you, and there were a lot more people behind that. There was that girl Lessar and her organisation. There was that Japanese woman with the sword and asymmetrical attire. There was the Queen of England. There were my Sisters, all 10000-odd of them. And so many others. That nun, ths senior from your school. Every one of them came together almost as soon as you went missing and coordinated an effort to find and rescue you,"

Kamijou looked at her, his mouth slightly open, and his eyes glazed over.

_The wishes of the individuals take precedence over the wishes of the whole._

Birdway had explained this queer trait of magicians before. He could hardly imagine that so many magicians from a diverse variety of backgrounds could have come together in a matter of hours and had actually somehow managed to work together - and _he_ was their goal. He, and his safety.

"Think about that," Mikoto urged patiently. "It's an _affirmation_, don't you see? Nobody cares that you caused a split within the Science Side - if there is anyone who holds you responsible in the first place. Everyone thinks of you as someone they care about - and so they got together to rescue you. Now tell me - do you think they would still do this if they thought your method was flawed? Who'd want to rescue a guy they thought was a blundering idiot who accidentally caused a major catastrophe?"

Kamijou remained silent, thoughts running through his mind.

"So...what are you saying I should do then?" he asked finally. She smiled gently.

"Trust in people. Listen to their lame sob-stories and be moved by them. Clench your fist and save them. Forget all this about having to change your way of doing things so you can nip problems like Birdway's machinations in the bud,"

She gracefully, strongly gripped his hand and continued, "And never forget that there are people willing to support you. If you ever make a mess of things, we'll help you set things straight. I can prove over and over again that the title of Tokiwadai's Ace is not for show!"

Kamijou stared at her in surprise. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to be led by her for some time. Mikoto waited, hoping he couldn't feel her heartbeat.

_Gyaaaaaahhhhh I've said it! I just poured all my heart into giving him the lecture I've wanted to give him for so long! M-my God, is he going to listen? I don't know if I can ever face him if he doesn't listen this time 'round! Oh pleasepleaseplease tell me I've reached him, that I've penetrated this idiot's thick skull!_

"Heh," she opened her eyes and looked up at him. He was smiling, his eyes still closed. "I think...I think I've somehow been waiting for someone to say that to me. Really, I didn't even realise I could've been this pathetic. Why didn't I see it?"

"I had so many opportunities to see it. The Amakusa Catholics...the Queen's 'general election' in England during Carissa's takeover...all those people who helped to take down that Angel in the skies over Russia...I never did anything on my own. Everything I've ever achieved was enabled by somebody else's sacrifices." he continued speaking in his soft voice.

"I've hurt you, Misaka. You tried to get across to me twice, but I blew you off both times. I'm...I'm sorry I did that." His grip on her hand tightened. "Your support...everyone's support...Those are not things I deserve,"

Mikoto sharply inhaled.

"But I'm not so prideful that I would stubbornly carry on doing everything on my own. I've finally understood the value of having someone to watch your back. I know now it's easier to reach that happy ending if I work with someone else,"

Mikoto looked up to meet his gaze, hardly daring to believe it.

"I know it's selfish, but..._I'm in your care_"

The girl beamed at him.

"Leave it to me!"

She barely managed to say those words with her weak voice. He had finally opened the doors of his heart to the tip of the iceberg of Mikoto's feelings. It wasn't just about her either; he had finally made room for _other people_ in his life. She recognised that - it was never just about her, it was about all his other friends too. She knew all too well that she was not the only person who cared about him. She was doing this for all the other young and old men and women who had even the slightest bit of affection for this boy named Kamijou Touma.

And so Mikoto had maintained internally that she was perfectly fine not being the first person he opened up to, as long as he actually did it. But being the person to stop him from going down his bleak, lonely path after the disaster at Hawaii, and giving him the confidence to put his life in others' trustworthy hands made her feel almost lightheaded with joy.

_See? You're not such an idiot after all. I'm soooooo sorry for all the times I shocked you and scolded you…How should I make it up to you, I wonder?_ various random thoughts ran through her head, and she halfheartedly wondered if her face was showing some kind of stupidly happy expression now.

"I'm glad to hear that, Biribiri,"

And her expression immediately changed. Unable to use her powers because she was holding his right hand, she settled for stomping on his foot hard.

"G-guh. That hurt!"

She raged, "Haven't I told you not to call me that, you idiot?! Seriously, are you so lacking in brain cells that you forget my name every-"

"_Kamijou Touma_," he suddenly cut in, his eyes closed lazily.

"Huh?"

"I too have a name, and it's not 'you', 'idiot', 'ape' or whatever,"

She turned red. _H-how did he turn the tables on me just like that? Did I, Misaka Mikoto, the Ace of Tokiwadai, just get trapped by my own words?!_

"-It isn't that complicated a name, y'know. ," she barely heard him say.

She gulped. "F-fine! Just so we're on the same page, I'll be following you around so you don't get in anymore trouble than is absolutely necessary. Is that alright, K-K-Kami...Kami...Kamijou-san?"

"Are you alright? You sound as if you're talking with a dentist's drill in your mouth," he said. "And...just drop that honorific. It sounds weird coming from you,"

Mikoto fumed silently, but was unable to do anything because she was holding onto his right hand. She just shook her head violently and took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

"Thanks, Misaka," she looked up to see a soft expression she had never seen before. "Really, I'm glad to hear that,"

His smile widened and exuded a brash strength. "8 people came here, you say? Well, let's get down to finding the rest! Let's find Lessar, Tsuchimikado, and your sisters, all four of them, then get back home!"

She stared at him in surprise, then his smile infected her. "Yeah...Let's!"

* * *

**Part 5**

It was barely a few days after the Ball of Frigg that something big happened at the Academy. The Royal Princess of Tristain was returning from Germania, and was passing by the Academy, and so the staff members of the Academy were quickly put to work making sure their institution was presentable in every way. The work was mostly handled by the common staff, but the teachers were also involved to some degree. As for Kamijou Touma, he had left Marc's service after Stiyl and Mikoto's arrival at the Academy, but still occasionally volunteered at the sullen medic's office out of gratitude for his help in the past. Having helped Marc set his space in order, the two men went out to see the procession together with Mikoto.

"Sure is a grand entry," Muttered Kamijou. Mikoto had to agree. The Princess was part of a procession of carriages that were beautifully decorated with fine gold and flowers. The steeds pulling the carriage in which the Princess sat with her mother the Queen and her prime advisor, one Cardinal Mazarin, were no ordinary horses - they were unicorns, legendary creatures that would only allow the fairest maidens to get near them. Mikoto looked them , getting glossy-eyed. Kamijou took one look at her and rolled his eyes at her expression, then smiled.

_Well, she _is_ a little girl. Especially when it comes to this kind of thing._

"What, I thought you were only interested in frogs?" he teased as he watched the carriage come to a stop. Mikoto's expression changed in that split-second and she growled at him.

"Watch it!"

"You both, _shut up!_" Marc hissed, nervously eyeing one of the nearby Mage Guards. The quarrelling teenagers clammed up.

"See?! This is all your fault!" she hissed at him. He simply sighed, as if he'd been expecting that. Before he could offer any wisecracks, however, the door to the grand carriage opened and a lady stepped out. All the students and staff of the Academy dropped smartly to one knee and bowed their heads. Kamijou and Mikoto quickly copied them to avoid standing out. They peeked their heads up to observe - the lady was not particularly old, but her expression carried much weight, as if she had borne much suffering in the past. This dignified lady, the Queen of Tristain, turned back towards the carriage and extended a hand. A small hand came out and took it. Holding her mother's hand, the Princess of Tristain stepped out of the carriage. A collective sigh of admiration issued from the crowd. Kamijou blushed slightly upon looking at her. She was indeed beautiful, and walked with a grace befitting her status.

Mikoto was just as absorbed in observing the princess.

_It's like I'm in a fairy tale, with all these magicians and this princess. C-could I ride those unicorns? Well, probably not...but at least I can pet them or something...right?! But what if they're scared of me...Oh right! I can get him to hold my hand…_

_EHH?! Did I seriously just consider that?!_

Kamijou raised an eyebrow at the girl next to him, who was shaking her head violently and blushing fiercely.

"What's wrong, Misaka?" he turned his eyes towards the unicorns. "Don't tell me you fell in love with those?"

_F-fell in love?!_

"Sh-shut up!" she stuttered.

"Looks like I hit the mark," he muttered. "You're such a kid, Misaka,"

"Heh?" her lip twitched. "Who. are. you. calling. _A KID?!_"

Lightning burst out from her hand.

"Eee!" Kamijou quickly reached out his hand and negated the lightning. He quickly looked around. Luckily, nobody was looking in their direction…

Then, he realised that this was because everyone was focused on the unicorns.

They were rearing and neighing in agitation. The guards around the carriage were trying to quell the creatures, but to limited success, seeing as they could not approach the pure horses without scaring them further. He took one look at Mikoto and realised that her AIM field was scaring the sensitive unicorns.

"Stupid luck!" he grabbed her hand and ran.

"Eh? EH? Wh-what're you-"

"We're getting outta here before they realise it was you! I'm not getting charged for lèse majesté in a foreign land!

"_Whaaaat?_ That makes no seeeeeeeeense!"

* * *

**Part 6**

Louise was oddly quiet and withdrawn. After the Queen and the Princess' entry, she had just gone straight to her room and sat on her bed, looking completely out of it. Saito had been put off when he had seen her staring at some sharp-looking nobleman, but he was somewhat worried about her now. He tried entertaining her, but to no avail.

"Hahh... I give up. Just what got into you, Louise?"

He sat heavily on his bed of hay on the ground. At that moment, there came a knock on the door. He got up again and answered it. He let them in when he saw who it was - Kamijou Touma.

"Kamijou? What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much,"He cast his eyes around the room, looking at Louise. "Eh? What happened to her?"

Saito was forcibly reminded of just earlier, when Louise had been staring deeply at a dashing noble mounted on a powerful Gryphon.

"Leave her be," he said, unintentionally harsh. "She's probably just tired,"

Kamijou cocked an eyebrow. The two took a seat on the floor in front of the bed. "Well, I came 'cause I wanted to ask her some stuff..."

"Like what?"

"I was wondering how to get overseas. Misaka, Stiyl and I have a few friends around in the neighbouring countries and we need to meet up with them."

"You have _more_ friends here?" Saito looked at him in confusion, then connected the dots. "Oh. They must've come to pick you up." He lowered his gaze. "Damn, I'm envious,"

Kamijou looked at him ruefully.

_It took me this long to realise how fortunate I was to have people looking out for me. But Hiraga, on the other hand...He doesn't have friends in the magic side. He's not a VIP like that US president Mr Scandal, or the Queen of England, whom the church would take notice of._

_Somehow, all my misfortune actually came back to help me when I needed it. But with this, I can lend Hiraga a hand as well._

Humbled by his thoughts, Kamijou's expression softened."We're going out to find those friends of ours scattered around this continent, then we'll make our move back to Earth. That time...that time, if you want to, you can come back with us,"

Saito looked at him excitedly. "If I want to come? Of course I wanna come! Why would I wanna stay here?"

Kamijou glanced behind him, where Louise was sitting. She didn't seem to have heard their words.

"Well, you looked really happy at the ball a few days earlier..." He muttered. Saito immediately blushed and started stammering incoherently. At that moment, the door suddenly opened and a brown-haired girl wearing a black T-shirt and yellow shorts burst in.

"So this is where you went! What's the big idea, dragging me away from the procession and then ditching me in some corner of the School?!" A blast of lightning flew out at Kamijou, who yelped and held up his right hand to negate it.

"Ahh. She found me," Kamijou said, looking a little embarrassed. "Well. Your powers scared off those unicorns right? I didn't want to get into trouble with the guards or whatever. Lèse majesté isn't a laughing matter y'know!"

"What would you know about lèse majesté anyway?" Mikoto huffed. "Don't tell me you insulted the Queen or something when you were in England?"

"Princess, actually. She lost her footing and fell onto me," he realized what he had just said, and quickly backtracked. "But I didn't do anything to her! It was just...an accident! An accident! I had no evil intentions _so don't shock me, Misaka-saaaan_!"

"Seriously, what is it with you and all these VVVIPs normal people only dream of meeting?" She sighed, sitting on the floor next to Kamijou. Saito looked at Kamijou in awe ["I...I'll call you _sensei_!"]

"Given your luck, I wouldn't be surprised if the Princess of this country just walked into this room and asked to speak to you," she huffed, having shocked Saito a little for his comment. At that moment, someone knocked on the door. It was in a particular order, two long knocks followed by three short ones. The three sitting at the bed turned their head simultaneously. They watched on, bemused, as Louise sharply got up and walked over to the door after straightening out her clothes.

When she opened it, a person walked into the dimly-lit room and looked around. Her figure suggested she was a woman, although she was covered up completely. Her face was hidden by a veil. She looked around and pulled out a short staff - a sceptre - from within her robes. On alert, Kamijou got up.

"Watch out!" With Mikoto hot on his heels, he pushed Louise behind him and faced the veiled woman.

"You, protect her! We'll cover you!" Mikoto said sharply in French, so that Louise understood her intent. Saito heeded her words and drew Derflinger, standing before Louise. Acting on reflex, the stranger swung down her sceptre while chanting.

"Magic? Well, good thing I'm here," Kamijou muttered with grim satisfaction. The attack came - it was a high-pressured jet of water.

The sound of shattering glass rang out and the water dispersed, evaporating like it had touched a red-hot surface and rapidly spreading out. Mikoto quickly followed through with a mild electrical attack, intending to stun her enemy like a taser - however, the slight force from the negated magic had blown away the lady's veil, revealing her face.

It was Princess Henrietta of the Royal Family of Tristain.

"Your Highness!" Louise shouted. The Princess looked shaken.

"Magic...without a wand? But...how?" Henrietta gasped, blanching. "And you...with that hand…"

"What're you doing here? Did you come to attack Vallière?" Kamijou demanded.

The Princess looked at him, stunned. But then, she seemed to realise something and lowered her sceptre slowly.

"Answer me this: were you fighting to protect that child?"

"Of course!" Mikoto scolded. "You just walk in here and raise your weapon like that...do you think we'll really just sit around and do nothing? And what's your objective anyway? What did you come in here to do?"

Instead of answering the question, the Princess intoned, with a pleasant voice, "It heartens me to see that you have friends willing to rush to your aid like this, Louise Françoise,"

Louise threw off Saito, who was covering her with his body, and kneeled, bowing her head.

"I am _truly_ sorry, your Highness! It was not my intention to-"

"Louise," Henrietta said firmly. She smiled. "I do not mind. It was my own fault for appearing before you like this. I am glad, more than anything else, that there were people willing to defend you without a moment's hesitation." She looked at Kamijou and Mikoto. "I apologise for suddenly appearing like this, but there are things I need to discuss with Louise. I had to disguise myself so that I could not be recognised by the students or staff here. Louise is my friend, and I would never hurt her. You have my word that I will not harm anyone in this room,"

"Why's the Princess here? Are you some kind of future-gazer, Misaka?!" Kamijou asked bluntly. Louise snapped, "Is that how you address the Princess?! _On your knees, commoners_!"

Reluctantly, Kamijou and Mikoto sank to one knee, but couldn't stop whispering to one another.

"..._sigh._ Even Princess Carissa didn't make me kneel in front of her. Well, not until she started that coup d'etat..." This was, of course, said in Japanese. While they were whispering, the Princess and Louise had risen to their feet and seemed to be reminiscing now. They seemed to be old friends and playmates when they were younger.

But, looking closely, one could see a deep melancholy in Princess Henrietta's eyes.

"Your Highness...did something happen?"

The Princess caught herself in the middle of a sigh, and looked at Louise in surprise. With downcast eyes, she recounted her story.

After a few minutes...

"So...to summarise, someone's trying to blackmail you with a letter and you need to retrieve that incriminating letter before it falls in the wrong hands...in that case, why not just ask the Prince to come over here?" Kamijou was blunt as ever. Not noticing the scandalised expression on Louise's face, he pressed on, "I mean, if there's a civil war brewing…and if his life is in danger..." He trailed off.

"Do you understand what you're saying?! Asking a Prince to deliver a letter, how insubordinate!" Louise shouted. Kamijou raised his hands in a placating manner, but it was Henrietta who spoke next.

"Oh, nothing would make me happier, my good sir ["_S-sir?_"]," her voice took a troubled tone. "But even if I ask, he probably would refuse. For that is the kind of person he is," her voice sank to a whisper. "He wouldn't abandon his nation to those _horrible, horrible _rebels,"

"And so somebody has to go to this...Albion instead," Mikoto mused.

"Impossible! It's impossible! How could I be so terrible?" The Princess said emotionally. "When I think about it, I couldn't ask you to do such a dangerous thing as to go to Albion while this conflict between the nobles and the royalists is unfolding!"

"What are you saying? Be it the kettles of hell, or into the jaws of a dragon, I'll go anywhere for your sake! There is no way the third daughter of the House of la Vallière, Louise Françoise, could overlook such a crisis for your Highness and Tristain!"

Louise kneeled down and lowered her head reverently.

"Please leave this matter to me, the one who captured Fouquet the Crumbling Earth."

["Eh? Wasn't that us?"]

Kamijou scratched the back of his head. "So we've got to wade right into another Coup d'etat, huh?"

Mikoto muttered wryly, "At this rate, you might as well ask us to end the coup and restore power to the Queen," Louise was practically shaking in anger at the casual way the three commoners addressed the Princess and the _outrageous_ things they said to her, but she could not work up the nerve to scold Mikoto or Kamijou too much, having seen what they were capable of. She settled for taking out her rage on the unwitting Saito.

However, Henrietta actually took Mikoto's comment seriously, and said in a horrified voice, "No! I could never make such a request of all of you. Really, you are all too kind to this humble princess, accepting this diplomatic mission to the honorable Prince Wales."

"Ah...no, I was just joking," Mikoto quickly retracted her words, holding up a hand. She turned to look at Kamijou. The boy tilted his head.

"So...should we do it?" she asked uncertainly in her native tongue. Kamijou scrunched his eyes.

"Huh?"

Now the boy was sweating bullets.

"Um. Kamijou. Are you alright?"

He was almost crying. A strange noise issued from his clenched teeth, almost like his brain was screaming in protest at the scene before him. He looked so tense that Mikoto was actually startled when he suddenly relaxed a moment later.

"Stupid luck."

"Eh? What's _that_ supposed to mean anyway?"

"We just have to deliver some letter to a prince, right?" he suddenly snapped at the Princess, causing her some fright.

"Uh, yes…" she said, quite ruffled by his rough manner.

"Fine...I'll do it," Kamijou sighed. "We have to go to this...Albion anyway right? Isn't Tsuchimikado there? Along with your sister? Let's just go there and find them along the way,"

"But...there's a civil war brewing…I mean, I can handle myself, but you-" Mikoto muttered uncertainly.

"Come on. My right hand dispels all magic. And you're the #3 Level 5. If our enemy's a noble, I can shut down their magic, and if the enemy's _normal_, you can just send them flying with your powers. Together, we could rule the world!" he said sarcastically, then laughed.

_T-T-T-Together?! RULE THE WORLD?!_

The girl blushed and was unable to form coherent sentences. Kamijou didn't seem to notice her predicament, however, and just turned to the Princess.

"Just kidding...We need to go to Albion anyway, so I guess we'll accompany Hiraga and Valliere."

The Princess looked at him. She was _really_ not used to this, Mikoto reflected. Many of the rich girls at Tokiwadai were absolutely sheltered. They had never been shouted at in their entire lives before - and this princess was just like them. People probably treated her like she was made of glass, like the way Valliere spoke to her. Granted, Kamijou wasn't exactly _shouting_ at the Princess or scolding her or anything, but the casual way he addressed her, without care for her high social station, was extremely rough compared to how the Princess was probably treated everyday.

"You really have no delicacy whatsoever," she smacked his head.

"Look who's talking!"

"What?! What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Do you really need to ask?" He cocked an eyebrow at her. "I'm sure there's a broken down vending machine back home that's really happy now that there's nobody around to abuse it with roundhouse kicks and electronic hacking attempts!"

"Hmph! Whatever, idiot!" She folded her arms and stuck her nose in the air. Kamijou smirked at her expression before facing the Princess again, this time with a softer expression. "We'll go with these two, Ma'am. You can rely on us!"

"Your Highness, as this is a mission of the utmost importance, we shall leave tomorrow at daybreak," Louise pledged. She then addressed Kamijou and Mikoto. "Pack your things and meet us early tomorrow at the stables - and do make sure you are not seen by anyone,"

"Alright. We'll tell Stiyl and inform the Headmaster that we're leaving too,"

Henrietta nodded in approval. "I believe all of you are more than capable of accomplishing this mission, but I will still give you as much support as is needed. It is only right," she gave Louise two items; a sealed letter and the large ring on her right hand. "When you meet Prince Wales, please hand this letter to him. He will understand. As for this ring, it is a Water Ruby given to me by my mother. Take it as a good luck charm. If need be, sell it,"

"Sell...your Highness' ring? How could I-"

"Louise," Henrietta cut in gently. "The ring means nothing to me - your well-being is most important. Let it be useful for once,"

"Thank you, Your Highness. Everyone, get some rest. We have a long journey ahead of us,"

"Er...do I get any say in this?" Saito tried asking.

"Where the master goes, so does the Familiar!" Louise lectured. Henrietta laughed lightly at the exchange between the two. She had been astonished when Louise had explained earlier that this human being was her familiar, but had come to accept it. She felt a little sorry for him - while the other two had volunteered of their own accord to help Louise, he had not had a choice in the matter. She spoke directly to him.

"Thank you for being so dependable, Mr Familiar," she said, inclining her head slightly.

"Eh? Me?"

"Please keep taking care of my most precious friend," She held out her hand towards him, with the palm facing downwards.

"Your Highness! This won't do, offering your hand to a mere familiar!"

"It's alright, Louise Françoise," the Queen said gently. "He has done great things as your Familiar, helping you capture Fouquet, and I am sure he will continue serving with great honour. It is only right I reward him."

Saito looked at her hand uncertainly. Louise glared at his expression and said haughtily. "Don't you understand the meaning of this, dog? When she offers her hand, it means you can kiss her."

"Wh-what? Just like that?" Saito was surprised to hear those words. "Well, ok...here goes!"

He took Henrietta's hand and pulled her towards himself, before planting his lips right on hers. Louise screeched in rage and horror and promptly kicked him between the legs. Even Mikoto had to flinch upon seeing the expression of pain on his face.

"Er..I didn't know this was how they did things here," remarked the pale Kamijou.

"_We don't do things this way!_" Louise yelled. "This...this _dog_! To p-plant his disgusting lips on her Royal Highness! You were supposed to brush your lips against her hand, you _imbecile!_" she stepped on his face repeatedly.

"I suppose he read the situation wrongly," Mikoto muttered, blushing. At that moment, the door flew open and a blonde boy rushed in.

"Y-you animal! How could you...the Princess!" words failed him. Guiche de Gramont waved his rose and started demanding a duel for the princess' honour. Saito leapt up and started arguing back, scolding him.

"Things sure are getting noisy here," Mikoto muttered. "_Aren't they?!_"

The room was briefly illuminated by a flash of lightning. Kamijou, Mikoto and Henrietta were the only ones standing. Saito, Louise and Guiche lay on the floor, smoking lightly.

"You...you really overdid it this time," Kamijou facepalmed.

"Well, they were asking for it! And you didn't lift a finger to stop them!" she said defensively.

Henrietta covered her mouth in horror.

"Ahh, don't worry about them. They'll be perfectly fine," Mikoto said offhandedly, but it didn't stop the Princess from promptly healing the three idiots. While she was applying her water magic to heal them, she asked Mikoto, "I am curious, Lady Misaka,"

Failing to hide her childish pleasure at being addressed in such a way, Mikoto asked, "What about?" cheerfully, as Kamijou smirked.

"The source of your magic - and you too, Sir Ka-mi-jou, was it?"

"Err...just Kamijou is fine," said the boy uncomfortably. "And it's not really magic. It's...something else,"

Mikoto decided on an easier way to explain things. "We come from a different world,"

"A different…"

"Yeah, a different world. So does that guy," she indicated Saito, then briefly explained the circumstances that had led the three of them to Halkeginia.

"And...on this world named _Earth_, you have a different system of magic, and yet another system that allows one to awaken powers? And Lady Misaka is from that system?"

"Well, something like that," Kamijou bowed slightly. "Anyway...We're sorry about earlier. All we saw was a person walking inside raising their magical weapon like they wanted to attack Vallière...that's why we thought you were an enemy,"

"Oh, it's nothing you should be apologising for. In fact, I am happy that you did that for my friend. Truth be told, I was planning to send a capable Mage from my Guards along with you to assure your safety, should Louise accept my request, but I feel reassured with the two of you around," Henrietta giggled slightly. "Although, even if I tell him not to go, he will still follow Louise Françoise. That is the type of man he is, after all. Yes, I think I will request him to follow you. It is only right to afford you at least this much additional support,"

"Who is this man?" Mikoto asked, wanting to know who was their contact.

"Sir Jean-Jacques Francis, the Viscount of Wardes. The man betrothed to Louise,"

"Ehh?" Mikoto was stunned. "Marriage...at such an age?"

"Well, people used to marry early even on our world," Kamijou pointed out. "But I guess it's still surprising to hear,"

Henrietta looked at the two of them in surprise, but decided to accept their words at face value. Closing her eyes, she bowed deeply to the two flustered teenagers.

"If you had explained it to me in other circumstances, I would not have listened to such stories. But after seeing all this...I will choose to believe you,"

She raised her head and looked them in the eye. "I have learned something. Just when we believe our systems are absolute and the things we believe in are the only truth in the world, the heavens and the Holy Founder send us something like this to remind us of how small we really are,"

"I thank you once again for extending your hand to this poor, undeserving princess. Even though you have no obligation towards me, you pledged to give of yourself for my sake, and I will never forget this great service you have done for me and my nation,"

* * *

**Part 7**

The next day, everyone woke up early and made their way to the , they had met their contact, Viscount Wardes - a tall strapping man with well-defined muscles and neatly trimmed facial hair.

Saito felt a little down every time he saw him. The older noble was everything he, a mere familiar, was not. He was tall, handsome, powerfully-built, and extremely well-mannered and charming. As soon as he met them, he had gotten hot and flirty with Louise (just his opinion), and Guiche had somehow called him out on it, which led to a noisy denial. He even insisted that Louise ride with him on his personal Gryphon instead of on her own horse. The two of them were currently riding ahead of the rest.

Meanwhile, the other people he thought he could talk to - Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto - had also drifted away to ride with Stiyl. The familiar-boy clutched his reins momentarily, before strength left his fingers, shoulders slumping. He had initially thought they were normal, but they too were in a world of their own. Misaka could control electricity. Apparently all those rumours about Academy City developing psychic powers was true. She was powerful too. Kirche and Tabitha were both powerful mages themselves, but their attacks, combined, had had no effect on Fouquet's Golem. This petite girl, on the other hand, had destroyed half the Golem with just one attack that did not look like it had tired her even slightly. As for Kamijou...he was hiding something. That was for sure. The Princess and the Academy medic had fired some magic at him some time back, but he had caused their attacks to be completely dispelled somehow. The same medic had said that his right hand 'denied the possibilities of magic', but Kamijou had not mentioned anything about that when he explained his power to him and the girls after defeating Fouquet.

"_My power? It's just...misfortune, really."_

"_Huh? Misfortune? What's _that_ supposed to mean? Hey, give us a proper answer!"_

"_No, really, that's all there is to it! Seriously, I wish I was joking. My life is nothing but misfortune. I can't get through a single day without almost getting run over by cars, I'm always losing stuff, I'm always getting chased by psychos…"_

And he had refused to explain further. Any more questions were simply answered with a vague reference to his everyday life of misfortune or an overly-long explanation on what "cars" were.

Well, whatever, Saito thought. Kamijou had every right to keep secrets. He only wished he had someone normal to talk to, not like the brainless blonde noble riding next to him drooling while in the middle of some lustful dream.

As Saito immersed himself in his own thoughts, the three teenagers riding ahead of him were having their own conversation.

"So...what'd you think of this world, Stiyl?"

"It's hell," came the fast reply.

"Eh?"

"There are no cigarettes, so I'm reduced to smoking a pipe like some old man!" the rune magician snapped irately.

"You hate this place for that reason? You should really give up smoking," Mikoto wrinkled her nose. "You shouldn't be destroying your health from such a young age,"

"Shut it. I've had enough of kids from Academy City lecturing me on this,"

"Pffft...! I swear - you and Komoe-sensei are two sides of the same coin, Stiyl,"

"_Are you prepared to meet your maker, Kamijou?!_"

"Hey hey, relax. I was just joking - _I was just joking so could you put away that dangerous-looking rune card?!_"

Mikoto ignored the two idiots and took out a piece of paper to study it. It was a map of Halkeginia.

"It's been bothering me for a while, but doesn't this map look kinda familiar?" she showed it to Kamijou and Stiyl.

Stiyl nodded. "I've seen it. It's similar to our Europe,"

"Eh? How so?"

"The countries Tristain, Gallia, Germania and Romalia are on the continent, but the country Albion is separate. Just like how countries like France, Italy or Spain are on the mainland of Europe, but England is an island detached from the continent. And what's more, Albion is an old name for England," Mikoto said cryptically.

"Heh~? Are there other similarities?" Kamijou asked, interested.

"Gallia was the name given to a group of territories from ancient Roman times. These lands are in modern-day France and Belgium,"

"Then what about Tristain?"

"I'm not sure about that, but it looks like Belgium or Switzerland. Most people speak French here, but there are some who speak German too - which is similar to those two countries. I suppose most people don't speak Germanian here because they look down on that country - at least that's what I can infer from Louise's own attitudes towards Germanians - and speaking of Germania...I suppose it should be obvious which Earth country Germania is similar to,"

"So in other words, the layout of this world, in terms of geography, history, politics and linguistics, is analogous to our own world," Stiyl mused. "There is powerful magic on Earth that uses geographical boundaries as its basis. If the geography here is similar to Earth, then that means…"

"What, Stiyl?"

"Well, I was just thinking that maybe the powers of Curtana could be used even on this world,"

"Ugh. Don't mention that thing," Kamijou slumped. "But what about other forms of magic? I mean, it's good that you can still use your runic magic here, but I don't see how that's possible. How can you apply Idol theory here when you're on a different world?"

Mikoto listened attentively as well, having learned about Idol Theory and other aspects of magic from her Sisters on the way to Halkeginia.

"The idea of creating an idol to replicate the effects of an original holy artifact will still hold true here on other worlds." Stiyl said this naturally. "When we first came to this world, we tested our magic, with the exception of Tsuchimikado, since it's better for him not to damage his body for no reason. Lessar and I both could use our magic, although I found that mine was less effective than it was on Earth."

He pressed some tobacco into his pipe and lit it. When he was satisfied, he continued, "After doing some research, I found out why - there is a system of runes on this world as well. Since Earth runes are not the same as runes on this world, my rune cards are basically imperfect idols of the local runic system. I did some research on the local language - if I update my rune cards to use the local runes instead of my Earth runes, I should be able to match the power output I can normally use on Earth,"

"Then what about Spell Intercept? Didn't I see you using that when fighting that Golem?"

"Yeah. This place is rich in Norse Culture, even if the denizens don't realise it themselves. Like I explained to those girls back then, that Golem is based off of Mokkerkalfe - a giant in Norse legend that was created to fight Thor. But the heart of the monster was created using the heart of a cowardly mare, which made the actual giant cowardly as well. If I can explain the Golem we faced using these Norse doctrines, I can use spell intercept to interfere with it. That stupid mage should have cut off the link between herself and the Golem and let it run on auto, but she only tried harder to control it. That just made it easier for me to interfere," As an aside, Stiyl remarked, "That legend also explains why the Golem became scared upon getting struck by Misaka's lightning."

"Huh. That's interesting. My Imagine Breaker is also working fine here," he commented.

"Kamijou… this may be an odd time to ask, but do you know anything about the history of Imagine Breaker?"

"The history?" Kamijou pondered Stiyl's words. "Actually, I've been wondering about that." he looked seriously at Stiyl. "I don't have much to go on, but I don't think I'm the first person to hold this power,"

_You need to think about why Imagine Breaker has a connection to your 'right hand'. There is a great answer hidden there. There is also meaning behind the fact that it can negate all magic…It's quite simple...The true identity of Imagine Breaker is-…_

Kamijou clenched his fist and stared at it. He had been wondering about Imagine Breaker ever since that day in October when he had faced Terra of the Left in Avignon. Based on Terra's behaviour and what he had said, the only think Kamijou could infer was that Imagine Breaker had existed before him. Or perhaps he only knew nothing about his power thanks to his memory loss.

"Well, I guess it's not really your fault," Stiyl's voice was sympathetic. "I'll just tell you now - your guess is right. Imagine Breaker has existed before in various forms. Probably nobody knows for sure what its true purpose is, but there are some theories. One of the more accepted ones - although there are very few people who actually can 'accept' any of these theories, since the existence of Imagine Breaker is known only to a few - is that Imagine Breaker is the symbol of Magicians' _Hopes and Fears_,"

He explained the theory to Mikoto and Kamijou.

"So...it's like I'm the backup plan," Kamijou murmured. "In case the world gets too crazy thanks to a magician's machinations,"

"Something like that,"

Mikoto bit her lip thoughtfully. "Y'know...you said this was a theory made by magicians...but doesn't it also apply to the Science Side?"

"How so?" Stiyl frowned.

"Well, Academy City's goal is to reach SYSTEM. They want to create an esper that can understand concepts that are beyond the realm of human understanding. The actions of Academy City can possibly distort the world - it's like a really large-scale version of what happened on September 30th," she recalled those massive angelic tendrils of light that had stretched up to the heavens on that day, and how she had seen something similar in Russia. "If this power can be viewed as a way to let magicians do whatever they want without fear that the world will be distorted beyond repair, the same can be said for the Science Side. Who knows...maybe the leaders of Academy City already know about Kamijou's power. Maybe they went so far as to build an entire city for the goal of SYSTEM because they felt safe knowing Imagine Breaker was around to bring the world back to normal if they went too far,"

"Well, the possibility exists," Stiyl accepted. He turned to Kamijou and said seriously, "Think on this, Kamijou Touma. I know you'd rather be on Earth right now fighting Gremlin in whatever way you can, but our time here is not wasted if we can learn something about your powers that could give us an edge in the coming battles,"

Kamijou looked at him seriously, then turned to face the front. "I understand, Stiyl. Let's find out as much as we can before we go back,"

_I won't rot here. I'll come back, ready to take down that witch-girl._

* * *

**Part 8**

Jean-Jacques Francis, the Viscount of Wardes, savoured a rare moment of introspection while standing on the balcony of his room at the upscale Gallian inn they were staying at. The la Rochelle sunsets were said to be a breathtaking sight, and he knew now that those stories were true. Normally, he would have invited his betrothed Louise to watch such a beautiful sight with him, but he had decided to leave her be for the time being. He had engaged her familiar, the boy called "Saito", in a duel just hours before, and he had beaten him soundly.

_The power of Gandálfr...it is barely developed. Even those words are too kind._

The young man from a distant land had been reckless and weak. What he had heard about this boy defeating Fouquet simply sounded like a bad joke now.

Well, perhaps it was too soon to demand that the newly discovered Gandálfr fight and win against a Square-Class mage of Halkeginia. Even so, Wardes was not one to make excuses. Not for himself, not for others. He narrowed his eyes in distaste thinking about it.

Louise had a special power. Of that, he was sure. He believed it with all his heart, which was why he had to marry her.

Would she say yes? Well, of course she would. She would accept him. She had to. As for the Familiar...well, he could be taken care of later.

The tall, muscular nobleman reached into the collar of his dress shirt and pulled out a locket. There was the picture of a lovely woman inside it. He looked at it lovingly, in a rare show of emotion.

The minutes passed slowly, and the sun slowly set in the distant horizon. As darkness fell, a change overcame Viscount Wardes' expression, and he cast his vision out over the city before him, putting his locket back inside his shirt.

Now he was no longer the charming, powerful leader of the Gryphon Knights. He was Viscount Wardes of Reconquista. He had a mission to accomplish, and the pieces were already in motion in the city.

_The plan started falling apart ever since we set out on this journey - it was supposed to be just me and Louise. We were not supposed to have five extra heads. That Familiar makes me annoyed to just cast my eyes on him. Defeating Fouquet? That woman is clearly not as skilled as she seems, in that case. The son of de Gramont? It is easy to deal with him, but having him around increases the chance of the truth being found out._

_Those two triangle mages who joined us halfway on the Wind Dragon are both powerful and inquisitive. The red-haired one is just a Germanian, full of their passion and nothing else. The other looks more perceptive...could she be linked to the Gallian Royalty, with that hair colour? Either way, they are dangerous to the mission._

_And the biggest unknown is made of those three others. None of them are nobles, that is for sure. And yet, all of them have an inexplicable look of strength. It unnerves me. How can those of common blood like these have such a look in their eyes?_

He narrowed his eyes again and cast away his weak thoughts with a self-derisive snort.

_Well, it matters not. My battle is won as long as I separate the enemy forces. Fouquet may not be reliable, but she and her mercenaries should at least be able to create enough confusion for me to get out of this country together with my beloved Louise. The Familiar will likely follow his mistress even among the confusion, but he can be taken care of separately in that case…in fact, it should be better if he comes along. It will be easier to get rid of him once and for all and cut off Louise's emotional links with him that way._

Grimly satisfied, Viscount Wardes walked back inside his room. It was almost time for the show to start.

_To Be Continued_

Chapter 6 Preview

"_It's time to leave my first mark on this world...REMEMBER THIS, YOU FUCKERS!"_

"_But what I really don't get is...Why are you here? Hey. I'm talking to you, FUCKING JAP!"_

"_I never got the chance to thank you that time for calling the ambulance,"_

"_I think that's just her being honest, Kamijou-san. And it doesn't help that she can't handle you very well because of the way she feels,"_

"_Wow. This really is the most awkward table ever,"_

"_Feng Shui?! You actually believe that rubbish?"_


End file.
